Bex Burch – gyil
Jim Hart – drums
Ruth Goller – bass
Vula Viel means Good is Good in Dagaare, the language of the tribe in Upper West Ghana where Bex Burch lived, farmed and studied for three years. Now it’s the name of her trio featuring the best of London’s young music talent: Jim Hart (drums) and Ruth Goller (bass). Their intensely rhythmic music is an engaging mix of African, punk and minimalist influences. Based around the Gyil (the Dagaare xylophone made of sacred lliga wood) Vula Viel create something new and vital. This music will engage, entrance and excite your soul. ‘Good is Good’ is their debut album and they sound like nothing you’ve ever heard before. Indeed in the hands of Vula Viel, Good is very Good indeed!
Bex Burch started drumming aged seven when a chance encounter with a Djembe player inspired her to study percussion. Attending Guildhall School of Music and Drama and playing in orchestras before she moved to Ghana to make and play Gyilli, the powerful Dagaare xylophone. Burch formed Vula Viel in 2013 and continues to go deeper into what it is about the Dagaare music which resonates with a Yorkshire-woman living in London.
Jim Hart is one of the most in demand musicians on the European jazz and alternative music scene as a soloist and sideman in both drums and vibraphone. He is bandleader of Cloudmakers Trio which features long-standing associates Michael Janisch and Dave Smith, and has played with Stan Sulzmann, Sir John Dankworth, Cleo Laine and Alan Barnes and has worked with Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor, Julian Arguelles, Mike Walker, Liane Carole and Peter King to name a few. He is a five time recipient of a British Jazz award.
Ruth Goller performs regularly with leading U.K. Bands Acoustic Ladyland, Melt Yourself Down, Andreya Triana, Oriole, Pat Walden, World Sanguine Report and many more. Outside the UK, Ruth toured with Rokia Traore, renowned Serbian pianist Bojan Z, Iranian Sufi-master David Azad, Somali singer AarManta and Min Suleiman.
“One of my discoveries for the London Jazz Festival.. Good is Good” – Gilles Peterson
“Beautiful .. Dance to it, Make Love to it, Consume it, Listen to it, Stare at the Clouds to it.. That music deserves good reactions!” – Iggy Pop
“They were the unexpected stars of a glitzy show ” – The Guardian