Bex Burch is the band leader of Vula Viel, a trio consisting of Ruth Goller on bass and Jim Hart on drums. She is a percussionist with a classical training at the Guildhall School of Music.
Bex focuses her compositional output to the Gyil Xylophone, an instrument she built herself under the tutelage of Ghanaian instrument makers.
First visiting Ghana as an undergraduate, on the recommendation of a Ghanaian friend, she settled in the north, with the Dagaare People to begin an apprenticeship with Thomas Segkura, a professional maker of Dagaare xylophones, or Gyilli. Vula Viel have developed a strong following over the last few years, gigging regularly and releasing a well received LP in 2017 titled Good Is Good.
During Bex’s time as a composer in Sound and Music’s New Voices 2018 cohort, Vula Viel released their second LP, ‘What’s Not Enough About That’, marking another major step in the evolution of Vula Viel.
Bex Burch was a participant on the New Voices programme
Meet more of the composers we’ve worked with