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In the last twenty years, you may have observed Ruth Goller, a bassist born in Italy, performing with numerous groups in the more alternative side of London’s jazz and improvisational community. She’s been a member of Acoustic Ladyland, Melt Yourself Down, Sons of Kemet, and Let Spin, and has collaborated with a wide range of artists such as Alabaster DePlume, Marc Ribot, Rokia Traoré, and Damon Albarn. Her playing style typically involves playing intricate and thin basslines on her Mustang bass guitar, which has a shorter scale, using a pick.
In this individual endeavor, however, she explores a completely unique soundscape. She utilizes a detuned bass to play repetitive, mesmerizing patterns that create eerie harmonics – deep, echoing, otherworldly clangs resembling gamelans, temple gongs, or steel pans. Additionally, she showcases her singing talent: her previous album as a leader, 2021’s Skylla, featured vocal harmonies with Alice Grant and Lauren Kinsella, but in this project, Goller takes on all vocal responsibilities herself, layering bold, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares-inspired harmonies to produce a collection of slightly bizarre children’s songs.
Each track features a different percussionist providing a unique sound. Tom Skinner adds creative rumbling to complement the eerie and poetic opener, Below My Skin. Mark Sanders brings shimmering cymbals to the major-key chant, Reach Down Into the Deepest White. Max Andrzejewski from Hütte adds textured drums to the beautiful chorale, All The Light I Have, I Hand To You. At times, Goller plays the bowed double bass while Bex Burch accompanies on kalimbas for the hymnal She Was My Own, She Was Myself. Other times, she returns to her hardcore punk roots, joining forces with pianist Emanuele Maniscalco (known for his works on ECM) on How To Be Free From It. Together, Goller and her guests create a captivating world that is childlike, peaceful, and slightly unsettling.
is the much-figured March 17
March 17, a highly anticipated release, is now available.
A Swedish sound composer named Maria W Horn has created a site-specific recording, Panoptikon (XKatedral), in an abandoned prison. This piece features a choral quartet and organ drones, exploring the themes of confinement, claustrophobia, solitude, and torture, particularly in the pulsating Gregorian electronic sound of the title track. Norwegian composer and tuba player, Daniel Herskedal, presents an intriguing album titled A Single Sunbeam (Edition Records), which begins with a slow rendition of a colliery band and gradually evolves into a Peter Gabriel-esque exploration of ritualistic rhythms and unique vocal effects, played at a slow sludge-rock pace. Rachel Musson, known for her work in London’s free improv scene, has released a captivating new album, Ashes and Dust, Earth and Sky (Lludw a Llwch, Daear a Nef), featuring ambient drones, tenor sax solos, and harmonized horn arrangements alongside field recordings from London and west Wales.
Source: theguardian.com
