https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6T6suvnhco

Francis Bebey was filmed for this piece at Real World Studios during the Recording Week of 1995. It’s a delightful film - one of our favourites - where he demonstrates how to play his one note bamboo flute. “I’m teaching you how to do it, you should pay me” he says with a big smile.

Francis Bebey was a noted writer and musician from Cameroon who sadly died in May 2001. Peter Gabriel spoke for all who encountered him at the Real World Recording Week in 1995 when he said “We were hypnotised… he embodied wisdom in lots of ways and it was a real delight”.

Karl Wallinger, Peter’s co-pilot in the Recording Week sessions spoke of his amazement at the music Francis produced from his tiny, single note, bamboo flute, describing the sound as “one of the prime numbers of music”.

Francis Bebey features in the track ‘Whole Thing’ on Big Blue Ball: https://realworldrecords.com/releases/big-blue-ball/

Francis’s son Patrick Bebey features on the Arcade Fire single ‘Everything Now’ playing the same one note flute his father demonstrates in this video.