I’m an experienced session flutist, bringing dynamism, creativity and versatility to your recording project.
One player. A lot of options.
From piccolo to contrabass, familiar to decidedly less expected, my recording work spans an unusually broad range of flutes, headjoints and related instruments. Sometimes the right answer is simply a beautiful flute sound. Sometimes it is something less obvious.
Our starting point.
My 14K Haynes feels like an extension of me. This is the centre of everything I do, from delicacy and colour to projection, precision and contemporary techniques when needed.
Since I was a teenager, I’ve been obsessed with the enormous flexibility and versatility of the flute sound: from perfectly clear, to just a little edge to cut through a texture, to adding air for something diffuse and vulnerable. My aim is to create the sound you have in your head.
Strong, sweet, delicate or completely unhinged.
The classic strong yet sweet piccolo: from delicacy and tenderness to shrieking violence, and everything in between.
Mellow, sonorous and expressive.
Deep sounds ranging from large and booming to chunky and aggressive, with all of the warmth, breadth and expressive colour that makes the alto flute such a distinctive voice.
Extraordinary depth and breadth of sound.
My large-bore Kingma-Brannen Bass Flute combines enormous depth with remarkable clarity. Crisp articulation and confident third-octave playing are part of my normal working vocabulary on this fantastic instrument, which I’ve played professionally for more than twelve years.
This is not someone “borrowing a bass flute for a session.” I know this instrument like an old friend, and I have invested the time, energy and effort to bring the maximum amount of versatility to your project.
Rare, open and unusually colourful.
An extremely rare instrument with a particular timbre: more open and less focused than the piccolo, with an unusually broad range of tone-colour possibilities.
It is also perfect for emulating the military fife: that not-quite-a-piccolo, not-quite-a-flute timbre, but with the full chromatic possibilities of a Boehm-system flute.
The Alto Flute Piccolo.
Cute, mellow and gorgeously colourful. It can bring an earthy, folk-flute colour while remaining fully chromatic and retaining the dexterity of the modern flute.
Two octaves below the Concert Flute. An entirely different world.
Having played contrabass flutes since 1996, I’m one of the world’s most experienced and sought-after contrabass flute players. My playing can be heard on movie, television and computer-game soundtracks, commercially released albums, inside electric cars, and in my Sonixinema sound library, BRUTE FLUTE.
My has been viewed more than half a million times combined across Facebook and YouTube, and has helped fuel the increase in composers using this amazing instrument to create atmosphere, texture and drama in their scores.
Different headjoints can transform the concert flute into an entirely new palette of colours while retaining the chromatic flexibility and dexterity of the familiar flute body. For composers and producers, they keep that whole palette in one player’s hands.
The whammy bar of the flute.
Enabling huge glissandos of up to a perfect fifth, this headjoint brings a whole new dimension of possibilities to the flute: elastic, vocal and other-worldly.
A membrane-driven edge to the flute sound.
Inspired by the Chinese dizi, this membrane headjoint brings a distinctive buzz and additional harmonic energy to the flute’s first two octaves.
Irish-whistle colour with flute flexibility.
Based on an Irish Low D Whistle, this brings whistle-like colour together with full chromatic possibilities and familiar flute dexterity.
Baroque colour at modern orchestral pitch.
Want a Baroque Flute colour on your project at A=442 Hz? This gives access to that colour and response with the pitch, flexibility and familiarity of a modern flute.
Breathy, direct and vocal.
A top-blown headjoint bringing a distinctive quena-like attack and colour while retaining full chromaticism, versatility and modern pitch.
Air, edge and expressive freedom.
Another top-blown option with a markedly different response and breath character, combining an unusual colour with modern-flute flexibility at A=442 Hz.
Having played these beautiful bamboo flutes professionally in London West End theatres and in the studio, I’m well versed in providing an expressive and reliably in-tune contribution to projects when the red light comes on.
Whenever possible, I enjoy working in the studio alongside the composer, producer and engineer. For projects happening elsewhere, my at-home recording set-up keeps that same collaboration flowing across time zones, oceans and continents.
Large-diaphragm condenser microphone with additional isolation from an sE Sound Shield.
The link between the microphone and the recording system.
Recording, playback, picture, click and session preparation on Mac.
Wired connectivity for live direction, remote control and rapid transfer of large session files.
My recording space is triple glazed, with a sloping non-reflective ceiling, acoustic treatment and additional microphone isolation. It is designed for a clean, neutral capture, leaving the engineer complete freedom to shape the acoustic afterwards.
Is that the most flattering acoustic in which to play a flute recital? Absolutely not. Is it useful when an engineer wants a clean signal that can be shaped, placed and manipulated freely in post-production?Very much so.
Remote recording works best when it feels like a real collaboration: responsive, conversational and musically immediate.
I regularly work to click both live and in the studio, and can create click tracks from MIDI where required. I’m comfortable working to picture, guide material and precisely timed music.
I have worked with dedicated remote-studio systems where the composer or producer is running a separate DAW at the other end, as well as sessions in which the producer remotely controls my recording computer directly. Live direction keeps the musical conversation immediate, wherever we are.
When we’re not working together live, I’ll provide alternatives where useful: different levels of expression, decoration, colour or intensity. The aim is to give the composer or producer genuinely useful choices when the material reaches the edit.
I have an international performing career, so availability varies and turnaround is agreed project by project. But once a timeframe is agreed, I treat it as sacrosanct. I understand what studio deadlines mean for everyone further down the production chain.
I’m slightly obsessive about finding what a composer or producer is actually hearing in their head. For me, that process is a game, and one I genuinely enjoy: try it, adjust it, change the colour, push it further, pull it back, find another way.
Getting to the take that makes the person at the other end of the session really smile is always the aim.
Games, albums, film, television and sample libraries. A few of the projects and collaborations that have put my flute playing into headphones, cinemas, concert halls, living rooms and game worlds around the world.
Solo flute on original soundtrack recordings for Horizon Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West, Horizon: Call of the Mountain and related titles. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, AIR Studios and remotely.
Commercial albums, broadcast projects, sessions and sound libraries, from orchestral recordings to the stranger corners of the low-flute universe.
Recording and live projects including Disney, Eason Chan, Ibiza Classics, Dua Lipa Live at the Royal Albert Hall, and the GRAMMY-nominated RAYE at the Royal Albert Hall. Sessions at AIR Studios, Abbey Road Studios and on location.
Multiple commercial releases and broadcast recordings as both soloist and Principal Orchestral Flutist with VOCES8 and the VOCES8 Foundation Orchestra, including releases on DECCA Classics and associated labels.
Recording sessions with the London Contemporary Orchestra, English Session Orchestra and Hillary Skewes for productions including Alien: Covenant, Magdalene, BBC’s Ludwig, Wild Mountain Thyme, Carmilla, Satisfaction, Sonoton and numerous library-music projects.
A Celtic/Syrian fusion project on which I played exclusively contrabass and alto flute.
Solo performer on the internationally distributed contrabass flute sample library, featured across film, television and video-game soundtracks.
EXPLORE THE SOUND LIBRARY ↗
Performer on numerous sample libraries including the Bernard Herrmann Composer Toolkit, Evo-winds, Albion NEO, The Albions Orchestral Selects and others.
“Hey Gareth, have you got your flute with you?”
I had already known Sir James Galway for a decade. I first played to him aged 11 in Belfast, and over time our shared birthplace and mutual flute obsession brought us into a genuine friendship.
So one day, as a 21-year-old Guildhall student, I was hanging out in London with Jimmy as he headed to a recording session with Marisa Robles, Christine Cairns, John Lubbock and the Orchestra of St John’s. He suddenly turned to me and asked: “Hey Gareth, have you got your flute with you?”. Of course, being me, the answer was immediate: “Yes! Why?”
The track they were about to record needed to be double-tracked. Having another flautist in the building not only meant that Jimmy could finish earlier, but he could also give a valuable experience to a budding young flute player, giving me an extraordinary first glimpse into the professional recording world.
We recorded the track, and I was completely gripped by it: the concentration, the silence around the takes, the need for total precision alongside expression and shape. I was hooked. And after the session, both John Lubbock and Jimmy kindly insisted that I be credited on the disc - giving that 21-year-old a huge boost.
Songs for Alexander also featured Sir Simon Rattle, Steven Kovacevich, Dame Felicity Lott, Evelyn Glennie and many more extraordinary musicians. So my very first recording-session experience set the bar rather high. I’ve been enthralled with the medium ever since.
From a single exposed line to an entire palette of flute colours, let’s find what the track needs and get it recorded.
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