Vula Viel
Following the acclaimed release of ‘Do Not Be Afraid’ and a busy tour that took them to WOMAD, Bezau Beatz, Artist in Focus at Music Meeting, Moers Festival and Willisau Jazz Festival among others, Vula Viel return with a new album.
The band continue their sonic explorations around the gyil, the wooden xylophone of the Dagaare from Upper West Ghana, on their brand new set, ‘What’s Not Enough About That’. Their latest record has already generated much excitement, featuring as Album of the Week with a LIVE session on Gilles Peterson's BBC6 Music show and having been reviewed favourably by critics and audience alike:
The Wire “the Music rolls and motors with irresistible momentum.. there’s plenty enough about this”
★ ★ ★ ★ Jazzwise (Recommended) “this band is about bridging divides, beginning with their own.”
★ ★ ★ ★ Songlines “Vula Viel are on fire... a sonic treat from beginning to end that's more than enough”
★ ★ ★ ★ Written in Music “Original, striking, adventurous and emphatically different... a larger and more direct sound. It is a wonderful album that deserves a large audience.”
Picking up from early 2019’s ‘Do Not Be Afraid’, the new album breaks new ground as Bex Burch (gyil), Ruth Goller (bass) and Jim Hart (drums) continue to forge their own unique fusions. The new tracks stretch out the band’s sound, at times delicate and at others moving into raw post punk soundscapes.
Extensive touring brought the band from London’s most revered alternative venues such as Café Oto and Vortex Jazz Club to the stages of Cheltenham Jazz Festival and WOMAD, the British countryside plus our mainland European dates including Moers Festival, Bezau Beatz, Willisau Jazz Festival and Artist in Focus at Music Meeting, to take the Vula Viel sound to Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands in Europe for a string of packed jazz festivals – a busy year that cemented the unity of the trio and nurtured their artistic growth.
"Dance to it, make love to it, stare at the clouds to it"
Iggy Pop
“Hang on, this is really good”
Gilles Peterson
"One of the most exciting young UK groups I've heard this year, Vula Viel"
Jez Nelson, BBC Radio 3
