Ruth Goller

Saturday 3pm

St Laurence Church,
The Shambles, Stroud GL5 1JL

Ruth Goller is a bassist, vocalist, composer, environmentalist, and solo artist who is one of the low-end pillars of UK’s creative music community. She came up as part of the beloved punk-jazz outfits Acoustic Ladyland and Melt Yourself Down, establishing herself as an in-demand bassist. Her credits speak to a malleable collaborative spirit and authoritative artistic instinct. She’s worked with everyone from modern jazz trailblazers like Sons Of Kemet, Marc Ribot, and Alabaster DePlume; veritable rock stars like Paul McCartney and Damon Albarn; and a startlingly diverse array of acclaimed songwriters, folk artist Sam Amidon, Malian singer Rokia Traoré, and Serbian pianist Bojan Z.

Her 2021 album SKYLLA found Goller returning to the pure untaught instincts that drove her as a teen punk musician. She revels in exploratory uncertainty, undertaking fresh tunings for each improvised composition. As Goller puts it: “at that point muscle memory doesn’t work anymore so I have to trust my ear completely.” 

This year she releases SKYLLUMINA, her debut album for International Anthem. This music, featuring de-tuned bass and overdubbed vocals, is otherworldly and defiantly unclassifiable — far-out sibilant ice age siren songs that haunt like something conjured in a fever dream starring Björk, Meredith Monk, and Mike Watt.

Expanding on the wholly original sound Goller established with her debut,, SKYLLUMINA complicates matters as she augments every piece with a different drummer. A list that includes Tom Skinner, prolific British player Seb Rochford, fellow International Anthem recording artists Bex Burch and Frank Rosaly, her longtime Vula Viel counterpart Jim Hart, and more, Goller’s drummers each take a completely different approach to complementing her music. Some use inventive applications of traditional drum kits; others bowed vibraphone, or gongs, sanza and llimba.