Vanbur is the artist project of composers Jessica Jones and Tim Morrish, whose combined scoring credits include the Netflix smash-hit One Day, Eleven Films’ Red Rose for BBC/Netflix, The Surgeon’s Cut also for Netflix and Prime Video’s Fifteen-Love.
The Bristol-based multi-instrumentalists produced their first record together under the name of Vanbur in 2019. Human, came out in January 2020, a record rooted in moments of reflection, pondering the power of connectivity and the unified experience of humanity. Jessica’s haunting and ethereal vocals are at times in the foreground with dream-pop sensibilities, and elsewhere operate as an additional layer to the orchestration and instrumentation, to rich and emotive effect. Human was met with critical acclaim, with placements in Amazon’s Hanna, Sky’s The Rising, the season finale of the Netflix hit Virgin River, and inclusion on Spotify’s Not Quite Classical and The Most Beautiful Songs In The World playlists, and total streams of over 6 million and counting. Mary-Anne Hobbs described their music as “hauntingly beautiful”.
Deutsche Grammophon singled out the duo to contribute to their compilation series Project XII, and in October 2020, Vanbur released the single Falling Colour, which was immediately added to Spotify’s Classical X playlist. Vanbur was also included in DG’s seasonal compilation Winter Tales with their rework of Carol of the Bells, released in 2021. Also in 2021, Vanbur released Human Reworked – a collection of reworks of their debut EP, from artists including Mogwai, Katie Gately, Mafro, Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres and Oli – and Threads, a track that exemplified Vanbur’s singer-songwriter sensibilities, which was featured in the series Hanna, alongside placements from Human.
In 2022, Vanbur released my dove, to sleep as part of the For The Birds: The Birdsong Project charity compilation series (spearheaded by the Music Supervisor Randall Poster) alongside artists and actors reading poetry, including Jarvis Cocker, Greta Gerwig, Yoko Ono and Beach House. The series was released on vinyl, with proceeds going to conservation charities such as The Audubon Society, and the project went on to win a Grammy in 2024.
Vanbur released stand-alone single Earthing, taken from the film This Is Endometriosis in 2023. Early in 2024, the Netflix smash-hit One Day was released, which was not only scored by Jessica Jones & Tim alongside Anne Nikitin, but also featured a number of tracks from the Vanbur back-catalogue. The OST album, released by Silva Screen, featured ‘One Day versions of Last Look, my dove, to sleep, Earthing and In Cold Light.
Vanbur are working on new material set for release in 2024.