Ruth Goller's rock-inflected electric bass – equal parts grungy and ambient – has been one of the hallmark sounds of bands such as Melt Yourself Down, Let Spin, Tori Handsley trio, Rokia Traoré and Vula Viel (it's on leader Bex Burch's label that this recording appears) over the previous decade or so. For her debut, produced and mixed by her partner, high-flying pianist Kit Downes, she creates a unique, quirky otherworldly sonic universe of intimate parts: her wordless vocals – that becomes choir-like with the addition of Snowpoet's Lauren Kinsella and Matthew Herbert's Alice Grant – and electric bass that combines chiming overtone harmonics and arpeggiated chords. Goller tunes her bass differently for each piece so there's a reliance on her ear rather than muscle memory. If there are words they are almost entirely unidentifiable in spite of the intriguing track titles such as ‘What's Up is Not What's Real Most of the Time’. With her obvious jazz and improv sensibilities intact, Goller draws inspiration from diverse sources among them folk song from her original birthplace in the Italian Alps, as well as the Balkans and Brazil. The music also touches on territory explored by experimental post-punk bands, something that impacted Goller when growing up. Skylla's dreamily intimate soundscape recalls something of Robert Wyatt and could be what a meeting between Jaco Pastorius, proto-Riot Grrl punk band The Slits and 1970s vocal trio The Roches might have sounded like.