When we last heard from George Burton on record, he was bringing notable light and heat to the holidays with The Yule Log. Now, Burton — the farsighted pianist, composer, and son of Mt. Airy — is preparing to release a new album brimming with righteous ambition and productive tensions.
The album, White Noise, will be released on Sept. 20 via Burton’s own Porge Records. A meditation on Black creative survival in the face of oppressive colonial legacies, it has nothing to do with the Don LeLillo novel by the same name — except in the sense that both play on the multiple meanings of their title phrase, which we associate first and foremost with the sonic impression of a full-spectrum wash of frequencies.
WRTI is proud to premiere the album’s first single, “Heard But Not Seen,” which features Siya Makezuni on vocals, Dylan Band on saxophone, Pablo Menares on bass and Corey Rawls on drums. As Burton explains: “The title is a play on words that flips the somewhat antiquated phrase ‘seen but not heard’ — which was most frequently used to describe how adults wanted to experience children, but it could also refer to any marginalized group, historically.”
Burton continues: “In modern society we’ve come to adopt the reverse as status quo — we see a multitude of ways in which marginalized people are often ‘heard,’ with their artistic expression, thoughts and ideas finally becoming part of the conversation, while they are still not allowed to truly be acknowledged or revered for who they are, their contributions continuing to go unrecognized in the broader narrative. This piece pays tribute to their unseen influence and the silent power of their voices.”
Makezuni, whose voice is heard in “Heard But Not Seen,” is a South African trombonist and singer also prominently featured elsewhere on the album. “The piece opens with a slightly distorted voice that creates a beautiful color, but it’s difficult to define that color before it disappears into the complexities of life,” Burton explains. “Life begins with the start of a complicated saxophone line, which is later joined by the somewhat ethereal voice of an African woman. This voice is the part we should focus on because it represents what is not seen. The drive of the piece itself is relentless, constantly presenting flashes of beauty that you want to hold onto, but they are just fleeting moments — before you know it they’re gone and you’re left wondering how to get it back.”
White Noise marks a notable step forward for Burton, following not only The Yule Log but also the albums Rec·i·proc·i·ty (2020) and The Truth Of What I Am > The Narcissist (2016). “This is not just a collection of songs,” writes Nadia Owusu in the album liner notes, “but a powerful narrative zigzagging time, geography, and musical boundaries, honoring Black resilience and conjuring an electrifying and immersive reality in which all of us are free and thriving.”
