Ghanaian gyil melds with space-age electronics for a spluttering, time-warping and thoroughly compelling collaboration
Percussionist Bex Burch was born in Yorkshire and trained at the Guildhall School of Music in London, but her most important musical education came in northern Ghana. She spent three years with virtuoso musicians among the country’s Dagaare people and was introduced to the gyil, a wooden xylophone/balafon-style instrument specific to the area.
Burch returned to London where she made her own 14-note gyil from scratch, featuring a series of tuned wooden slats placed upon two resonant calabash gourds, also attaching pickups to ensure that it could be amplified and put through effects units. The instrument’s muted, thudding sound and the hypnotic, minimalist, pentatonic patterns that Burch creates on it have become central to all of her projects, including her punky trio Vula Viel, in which she is backed by bassist Ruth Goller and drummer Jim Hart.
Continue reading...by John Lewis via Electronic music | The Guardian
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