During Francesco Toninelli’s residency, he will further research the family of instuments he spontaneously calls “swung aereophones”, describing an object that produces sound:

• triggering a resonant cavity by mean of air getting into it through motion of the instrument body (opposed to air blowing into a static body like in most aerophones)

• by friction between its body and air

• by a combination of the two

He will look into the physics as well as the ethnology and archeo-organology of such family in order to build one or more prototypes of new swung aereophones and develop playing techniques.

Some sonic and cultural subjects he’s interested to research are: the production of different frequency ranges; the different physical phenomena that can generate sound; different amplitude capabilities; developing instrumental techniques; how an instrument without its own resonant body interacts with the space and highlights it as a resonant body itself; single bodied vs composite swung aereophones; the history of this instrument family and why it kept being a fairly uncommon mean of sound production notwithstanding the ease of craft and use.

Additionally, since his starting point for the research are common reed and bamboo canes, the use of vegetal material will open a discourse about the role of agriculture and environment in instrument making and how art created with such instruments can be informed and dialogue with the territory and landscape. Lastly, the use of found objects and organisms as sonic generators leads the way to the topic of the negotiation of creativity with animate and inanimate agents, entanglement and the role of chance & the limits of authorial will.

Francesco Toninelli is a sound maker and artist from Florence, Italy. Coming from a classical music background, he developed and interdisciplinary practice with a focus on sound: instrumental and electroacoustic composition, instruments creation, installations, sculptures, text scores, music for dance and theatre, percussion instruments playing, sound engineering, pedagogy. His creations focus on the discovery and reinvention of the past and its representations as well as on the relationship with rural environment and agricultural practices, often taking historiographical, archeological, literary and vernacular sources as starting points and resulting in artworks always bonded to the materiality of sound and the other elements.

Current or past collaborations as co-creator or performing musician include Marco Baldini, Marta Bellu, Michał J. Biel, Renato Grieco, Nicholas Remondino, Maria Valentina Chirico; he is part of Ensemble Ektos. He published records on Kohlhaas, 901 editions, Invisibilia Editions, Research Laboratories, Falt, Howard Records. In 2026 he had his first solo exhibition in the framework of Una Boccata d’Arte. Since 2023 he organizes the concert series AFF. He talks and writes for the webzine Golem.