Ruth Goller

'SKYLLA' is the solo project of composer and bassist Ruth Goller (Melt Yourself Down, Rokia Traore, Sam Amidon, Vula Viel) - featuring herself on bass guitar and vocals, as well as outstanding UK vocalists Lauren Kinsella (Snowpoet) and Alice Grant (Matthew Herbert). The music takes inspirations from Bulgarian folk song, to Free Jazz, to "Joyce" to the Italian Alps from where she hails - with bewitching compositions, featuring bass guitar harmonics in different tuning systems sparkling underneath other-worldly polyphonic songs. SKYLLA takes after the mythical three-headed sea monster of the same name, their music is both mysterious and arresting - in it's own intimate and unique way.
Vula Viel Records published Ruth Goller Skylla's first album in 2021, while the project's new album SKYLLUMINA is released by label International Anthem on March 1, 2024.

The Berlin based duo TRAINING is collaborating with the celebrated electric bassist Ruth Goller (Skylla).
The band collectively creates new, energetic music: meandering grooves, interlocking instrumental/vocal parts, expressive training sessions, weightless unison melodies. The pieces were created according to a "Cadavre Exquis" - composition principle - the party game in which one paints an absurd picture together by continuing to draw based on only a small, visible part of what was previously painted.The TRAINING duo has existed since 2019 and has made a name for itself since. The two busy, Berlin-based musicians played at Moers Festival, at Jazzfest Berlin (in transatlantic cooperation with the American musician and producer John Dieterich - known forthe experimental rock band Deerhoof), at Eurojazz Festival Mexico, at Saalfelden Jazz Festival, and numerous Club tours. They also organized a concert series with a wide variety of guests in Berlin called Gruppen TRAINING.
Ruth Goller is a London-based bassist who has helped develop many British experimental projects.
Her musical focus in recent years has been on the development of her own project SKYLLA, which brings together many of her influences. Her music includes microtonal bass harmonics with layers of vocal harmonies.
The joint album will be released on Squama Records in September 2024.

• video •

• links •

• biography •

Hailed by the Guardian for her «thunderous bass-guitar hooks», Ruth Goller is a bassist, vocalist, composer, environmentalist and now solo artist.
Goller helped lay the foundation for the UK's jazz renaissance, from her years on stage with Acoustic Ladyland and Melt Yourself Down, to more recently Let Spin and Vula Viel, whilst performing and recording with the likes of Shabaka Hutchings, Mercury-Award nominee Kit Downes, Sam Amidon, Bojan Z, Marc Ribot, Rokia Traoré, and Paul McCartney.
On "Skylla", Goller in some ways returns to the pure untaught instincts that drove her as a teen punk musician. Working with different tunings for each song, Goller composes instinctively based on what she hears in every moment.
As Goller puts it, «at that point muscle memory doesn't work anymore so I have to trust my ear completely».
While predominantly a solo work, Goller is aided on "Skylla" by accomplished and celebrated vocalists Lauren Kinsella and Alice Grant. The final contribution is from Kit Downes with the post-production and mixing of the record.
Intimate voice and bass guitar entwine in improvised tandem on Goller's debut album exhibiting a confidence that reflects her experience at the vanguard of the European jazz scene.
A work of uncanny and original beauty on which Goller has reached deep within to find pure honesty and musical originality.
As ECM Reviews put it, Goller «unravel(s) an intimacy so deep it (feels) almost blasphemous to be privy to its wonders».