Ruth Goller set to release new album, SKYLLUMINA, in March; shares lead single ‘Below my skin’

Photo: Zak Watson

Anyone who has been paying some attention to the UK jazz and improv scenes over the last couple of decades will be familiar with Ruth Goller. The Italian-born, UK-based bassist, vocalist and composer has recorded and performed with a ton of incredible bands and musicians including Acoustic Ladyland, Vula Viel, Melt Yourself Down, Alabaster DePlume, Shabaka Hutchings, Kit Downes, Paul McCartney, Damon Albarn and many others. Goller has announced the release of SKYLLUMINA, following 2021’s SKYLLA, and marking her debut album for International Anthem.

Each piece on SKYLLUMINA features a different drummer, including Tom Skinner, Seb Rochford, Bex Burch, Frank Rosaly, Jim Hart, and others, each one of them taking a decidedly different approach to augmenting her music. “I love playing with drummers and I decided to focus this work on my close connection to that instrument and the amazing people I’ve met in my life who play it”, Goller commented. “I started getting a list of drummers together that I wanted to be on the record and it was huge. I had to limit myself.”

Speaking about SKYLLUMINA, she had this to say:

“This record is a deep insight into my soul and my recent life. It’s coming through a meteor storm and grasping the first light. Coming out of a very unexpected tumultuous time. There are a lot of feelings of grief, loss, hope, pure love, connection to my home, death, and new configurations — as well as self-discovery.”

Ahead of its release on March 1s, Goller has shared lead single ‘Below my skin’, an eerily beautiful track “about intimacy and sensuality, being so close to someone, becoming one and losing the boundaries of your own body”. The track features Skinner on drums, and of their collaboration, she says:

“I first saw Tom play when I just moved to London and I started to explore the music scene. He was doing a regular jam session at the Jazz Cafe at the time and I used to go every Sunday. I always found his playing so creative and fell in love with his sound. After a few years we then met properly and played together a lot in Melt Yourself Down. His touch, sound and inventiveness is completely unique to me. I was so happy when he said he would be up for being on the record and I knew to expect something completely unique and unexpected, which is what he did.”

‘Below my skin’ comes with an accompanying video created and directed by Zak Watson and you can watch it below.

Alabaster DePlume teases upcoming album with second single ‘Greek Honey Slick’ featuring Tom Skinner

Photo: Chris Almeida

Following on from the tender and emotionally powerful ‘Did You Know‘, today Alabaster DePlume is bestowing us with another treat from his forthcoming album Come With Fierce Grace. Titled ‘Greek Honey Slick’, the new track features Tom Skinner and is infused with positive energy and beauty. Alabaster had this to say about it:

“Creating these things was itself a method of defeating thought, doubt, and ultimately fear, by being present in our hearts and bodies. Replacing the goal-oriented endgame demands of the mind, with an abundance of foolish playful life. I had dropped an enormous tub of organic Greek honey on my studio floor. This became an offering to the gods, to life, as we endeavoured to resist our cynical aspirations, by choosing in each moment the honest pleasure of interactive creation like big children, playing with the toys of the finest skills to which we’ve relentlessly devoted our lives. We have a responsibility to joy. If not that, then what else?”

Listen to ‘Greek Honey Slick’ below and grab the album when it’s out September 8th through International Anthem.

Tom Skinner previews forthcoming album with new single ‘The Journey’

Following the mesmerizing and gripping ‘Bishara‘, ingenious drummer-in-demand, producer and composer Tom Skinner has shared ‘The Journey’. The track is the second magnificent single previewing Skinner’s forthcoming album Voices of Bishara, which is set for release on November 4th through Brownswood / International Anthem / Nonesuch. ‘The Journey’ is offered with a live video recorded at St Luke’s in London and it features Robert Stillman (tenor sax), Chelsea Carmichael (tenor sax), Kareem Dayes (cello), Tom Herbert (acoustic bass) and Paul Camo (samples). The video was directed by Child and you can watch it below.

Tom Skinner announces new album, Voices of Bishara, and shares lead single

Photo: André Baumecker

An ingenious drummer-in-demand, producer and composer, Tom Skinner is one of the today’s most cutting-edge and visionary artists. Skinner had us entirely under his spell since the release of his self-titled album as Hello Skinny in 2012, which was one of our Picks of the Year. Incredibly prolific, he’s constantly flexing his creative muscles in exciting projects, including Sons Of Kemet, Melt Yourself Down, Matthew Herbert, Mulatu Astatke, The Owiny Sigoma Band, The Grip, and more recently The Smile. So we’re beyond excited to learn about the release of Voices of Bishara, the first album under his own name. The record takes its name from the late cellist Abdul Wadud’s 1978 solo album By Myself, which was  pressed on his own label, Bisharra, a common Arabic name that translates as ‘good news’, or ‘the bringer of good news’.

Speaking about the album, Skinner comments:

“This record is an attempt to put something truthful into the world, through collaboration and community, at a time of rising dishonesty and disinformation – ‘Bishara’ is the bringer of good news, and by bringing the musicians on this album who are very dear to me together, we pay homage to that idea by collectively spreading light where there is increasing darkness.”

Voices of Bishara will see the light of day on November 4th through Brownswood / International Anthem / Nonesuch and ahead of it we can already hear the mesmerizing and gripping lead single ‘Bishara.

Hello Skinny unveils cover version of Kit Grill’s ‘Velodrome’

Kit Grill - Velodrome (Hello Skinny cover)

Tom Skinner, the man behind Hello Skinny, always has his hands on quite a few stellar projects, that include most recently The Grip, Sons Of Kemet, Melt Yourself Down, Matthew Herbert, and The Owiny Sigoma Band, to name but a few. His latest offering under Hello Skinny sees him reworking Kit Grill’s genle single ‘Velodrome’. Kit Grill rarely turns in remixes, but he made an exception for the stunning all live set up cover version of ‘Velodrome’. Hello Skinny’s cover morphs the more digital original into an acoustic affair. “The idea was to replay some of the core melodic and rhythmic material but rearranged loosely for a more acoustic set up”, says the press release. Skinner enlisted the help of band mate and frequent collaborator Shabaka Hutchings, who astoundingly played the clarinet as a one-take performance. “A feat of human physical endurance, he manages to maintain the repetition of the part whilst changing the timbre and texture through circular breathing and other extended techniques.”
GETME! are releasing Hello Skinny’s cover of Kit Grill’s ‘Velodrome’ on September 22nd, but you can already be enthralled by its beauty. Here it is.