“In recent years I have been playing reconstructions modelled on German-Swabian wind (-instrumens) artefacts originally made from bone and ivory flute, originating from a period in the Stone Age known as the Aurignacian. Usually, my playing engagements are either secular or sacred, outside or inside, in natural or built environments, and have included contexts for: - concert; radio; film; studio recording; conference; funeral ceremony, symposium; workshop; and experiment”
Frances Gill.
Aurignacian-wind flautist: selected engagements
2022 | Bone-flute (experimental-musique concrète)
– studio-solo performance during the period 14th-18th December 2022 playing on the evolving vulture-wing-radius flute ‘Hohle Fels 1 - Frances Gill 1’ (HF1-FG1), during archaeo-organological reconstruction of the instrument. Documented in the digital album LISTEN I am making a flute for you (Bandcamp, ‘Frances Flute the Bellows Mender’).
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2021 | Ivory-flute (acoustic-experimental)
– open-air-solo performance (at dawn) playing the ivory flute ‘Geissenklösterle 3 – Wulf Hein, designed by Frances Gill 1’ (GK3-WH/FG1) at Sirgenstein Cave in the Ach Valley (Germany), 14th November 2021. Documented on the album Sonic Debitage as track 26, Still hear you (Bandcamp, ‘Frances Flute the Bellows Mender’).
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2021 | Ivory-flute (acoustic-experimental)
– open-air-duet performance in the late afternoon, playing the ivory flute ‘Geissenklösterle 3 – Wulf Hein, designed by Frances Gill 1’ (GK3-WH/FG1), in duet with Gabriele Dalferth, at Hohlenstein Cave in the Lone Valley (Germany), 14th November 2021.
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2021 | Aluminium flutes (experimental)
– open-air-solo performances (experimental) playing 5 aluminium tubes of different lengths (copying the pattern of the archaeological artefact GK3), voiced across two flute techniques in the Esbjörnamåla forest (September 2021). Performances feature on the album Sonic Debitage as tracks 16-25 (Bandcamp, ‘Frances Flute the Bellows Mender’).
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2020 | Bone-flute (experimental)
– sacred, solo-concert performance in memory of the artist Monica Backström of the piece called Monica’s house (Frances Gill 2020), playing the swan-wing-radius flute ‘Geissenklösterle 1 - Frances Gill 2’ (GK1-FG2), in the Gröna salen, at Kalmar Slott, (Sweden), 5th March 2020.
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2019 | Bone-flute (experimental)
– ensemble performance, playing a swan-wing ulna for Finding Wolves (Frances Gill 2019) on the 11th January 2019, in ensemble with Barbara Spreer, Gabriele Dalferth, Anna Friederike Potengowski, and Dorothea Federle, at the Blaubeuren Museum of Prehistory. An extract from a recording of this performance features on the album Sonic Debitage as track 12, Finding Wolves (Bandcamp, ‘Frances Flute the Bellows Mender’).
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2017 | Bone tubes and flutes (experimental)
– open-air-ensemble-concert performances (in the evening) – including a performance of Dance for Cajsa with Jean-Loup Ringot – and playing various swan-wing-bone tubes and flutes, in the From Cave to Rave ensemble performance at the Mednarodni Festival, Ljubljana (Slovenia), 25th August, 2017.
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2017 | Bone-flute
– duet performance of Duet for Anna (Gill 2017), playing the swan-wing-radius flute ‘Geissenklösterle 1 - Frances Gill 2’ (GK1-FG2) in the Prešeren Hall, Ljubljana (Slovenia) 26th August 2017 together in duet with Anna Friederike Potengowski. An extract from this performance features on the album Sonic Debitage as track 10, Duet for Anna (Bandcamp, ‘Frances Flute the Bellows Mender’).
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2017 | Bone-flute
– solo performance of Green Källa (Gill and Beatty 2017), playing the swan-wing-radius flute ‘Geissenklösterle 1 - Frances Gill 2’ (GK1-FG2), at the summer exhibition Kulturarv – Källa, Näsby Nav, Öland (Sweden), 16th July 2017.
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2016 | Bone flute (experimental)
– solo-studio performance of Stenåldersflöjten (Frances Gill and Janne Bengtson 2016), playing the swan-wing-radius flute ‘Geissenklösterle 1 - Frances Gill 2’ (GK1-FG2) for Sveriges radio programme Sommar i P1/Karin Bojs, 26th April 2016 and aired 19th August 2016.
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2016 | Bone-flute
– solo performance of Schlaflied for the newly made swan-wing-radius flute ‘Geissenklösterle 1 - Frances Gill 2’ (GK1-FG2) which features on the album Sonic Debitage as track 9, Schlaflied (Bandcamp, ‘Frances Flute the Bellows Mender’).
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2016 | Bone tubes (experimental-musique concrète)
– ensemble-concert performance of Dance for Cajsa (Gill 2015) playing a swan-wing-radius bone and swan-wing-ulna bone, in concert with Gjermund Kolltveit (jew’s harp) and Birgitta Ridderstedt (voice and body) at a concert for Cajsa S. Lund, Linnaeus University, Växjö (Sweden), 18th February 2016.
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2015 | Bone tubes (polyphonic)
- studio-solo performance in four parts of Bone tubes playing a swan-wing-radius bone and swan-wing-ulna bone in the late autumn of 2015. The mix of four parts features on the album Sonic Debitage as track 8, Bone tubes (Bandcamp, ‘Frances Flute the Bellows Mender’).
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2015 | Metal tube (experimental-musique concrète)
– open-air-ensemble-concert performance of 14 cm (Gill 2015) at Sandby borg, (Öland, Sweden) playing a 14 cm-long metal tube, in ensemble with artists from Kulturell Tankesmedja (cultural think-tank) 24th April 2015.
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2014 | 14 cm-long bone and metal tubes (experimental-musique concrète)
– open-air-solo performance of Småland smallsound during the summer period 2014 in the natural-forest acoustic (Esbjörnamåla, Sweden).
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2013 | Bone-flute (experimental-musique concrète)
– solo performance of Playing the data as music during the spring 2013 on a swan-wing-radius-bone reconstruction of GK1 made by Anna Friederike Potengowski and Johannes Wiedmann, interpreted with four finger holes. Played as a blockless duct flute, a compilation of phrases from the recording features on the album Sonic Debitage as track 4, Gravid (Bandcamp, ‘Frances Flute the Bellows Mender’).
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2012 | Ivory flute (acoustic-experimental)
– open-air-solo performance playing the mammoth-ivory flute ‘GK3 –FG/FT1’* at Geissenklösterle Cave, the Ach Valley (Germany), 20th April 2012. An excerpt from the performance features on the album Sonic Debitage as track 3, What the goat heard (Bandcamp, ‘Frances Flute the Bellows Mender’). *‘GK3 –FG/FT1’is a free reconstruction of the mammoth-ivory artefact from the Swabian Aurignacian known as Geissenklösterle 3 (GK3) engineered by Frances Gill and a team lead by Frank Trommer. An audio-visual extract from one performance is published as Sound experiment Geissenklösterle 13th July 2014 on YouTube ‘Flute Origins’ @fluteorigins4803.
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2011 | Bamboo flute (acoustic-experimental)
– performances playing an Erik Sampson flute reconstruction of the vulture artefact from the Swabian Aurignacian known as Hohle Fels 1 (HF1) in Hohle Fels Cave, The Ach Valley (Germany), 2nd July 2011, and in ensemble with Marziyeh Zarekhalili (voice). Some audio extracts from performances feature on the album Sonic Debitage as track 2, In Hohle Fels that night (Bandcamp, ‘Frances Flute the Bellows Mender’). An audio-visual extract from one performance is published as Sound experiment Hohle Fels 13th July 2014 on YouTube ‘Flute Origins’ @fluteorigins4803.
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2010 | Bone flute: (experimental)
– in Blaubeuren Museum of Prehistory, on a Seeberger reconstruction of GK1, April 28th 2010, on the album Sonic Debitage as track 1, Seeberger’s flute (Bandcamp, ‘Frances Flute the Bellows Mender’), recorded by Eric Spitzer-Marlyn.
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