Laura Cannell launches a new monthly series today with Echoes of a Swan Bone Flute, the title track and first instalment of Sound Hoard, out now on Brawl Records. The accompanying film, made by Simon Nunn, is below.
Cannell describes Sound Hoard as “a collection or gathering of ideas, objects or moments which are translated into sound” — the things that prompt her to ask, in all sorts of situations, “What would this treasure, object or piece of art sound like?”
The starting point this time was a recent visit to the newly renovated, 900-year-old Norwich Castle. A display of flutes and whistles stopped her: fragments of bone pierced with holes, a bone peg from a stringed instrument, a bone bridge, all hinting at sounds from an ancient time. Among them were a couple of flutes found on the site, dating from between the 13th and 15th centuries and made from a swan’s wing bone. People have made instruments from animals for thousands of years, and a bird’s hollow bones — light enough to float and fly — make a good case for it. One creature resonating through another.
That kind of small discovery is where Cannell does her best work, finding something modest and then exploring the spaces between the notes. She wrote, performed and recorded the piece at Studio Magitumbus, on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, on 3rd and 4th June 2026, playing overbow and octave violin, bass recorder and synths.
It follows a busy, well-travelled run: The Medieval Drone Society I, II & III (January, February and May 2026) and AURORAE (April 2026) all entered the Official UK Album Download Charts and have been broadcast around the world.
Echoes of a Swan Bone Flute (June 26th, 2026) Brawl Records.
Bandcamp: https://brawlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sound-hoard-i-echoes-of-a-swan-bone-flute