About Shellectronica
I’m Steve Pretty, and Shellectronica is my live acoustic and electronic music project. Sometimes I make a shell instrument on stage — cutting the mouthpiece, then playing it for the first time in front of the audience.
I first got interested in shell instruments while exploring the pre-history of music in my podcast and live shows, On the Origin of the Pieces. Conch, triton and frog shells have been used as instruments for tens of thousands of years; their sounds connect our earliest musical ancestors with today’s electronic tools.
I build each performance live from breath and shell, using pitch shifting, granular processing, harmonising and looping. The music moves between meditative soundscapes and rhythmic exploration. No prerecorded samples, no backing tracks, no synthesisers.
I’ve performed and recorded with these instruments at the Natural History Museum, Hammersmith Apollo, National Maritime Museum, Kings Place, Café Oto and festivals across the UK. Explore past performances or listen to the recordings.
You can also hear a conch shell solo in Fluoresce, a track I wrote with Hackney Colliery Band for Collaborations: Volume Two.
Where the Shells Come From
There’s no ancient ceremony or secret dive site involved (even though I am a keen diver and, believe it or not, have a side hustle as an underwater photographer). Most of the shells I use come from eBay…
They usually turn up when someone’s clearing out a relative’s old aquarium collection or beach holiday display. It feels more ethical — and more interesting — than buying freshly sourced shells. Each one has its own story, texture, tuning, and quirks.
Once they arrive, I turn them into playable instruments with nothing more than a hacksaw, a pair of pliers, and a deep breath. Some of them I even make live on stage — cutting the mouthpiece and playing it on the spot. It’s part of the show, part of the risk, and a reminder that these are real, physical objects with a history of their own.
But it also ties this process of making into a deep, ancient history of humans using tools around them to create instruments of abstract creative expression. As part of my performances, I often dig into this history, drawing a line between the construction of these musical shells which transform air into music and the electronic processors that they are run through, which transform electricity into music. All part of the same, extremely ancient story of human creative expression.
Electronic manipulation
Every sound in a conchert begins with a shell. Where our ancestors played in resonant caves, I use electronic processing to create a sense of space, scale and contemplation in modern venues.
My setup can include:
Eventide H9000
SOMA Labs Cosmos
Beetlecrab Tempera
Torso Electronics S-4
Ableton Push Standalone
If you’re interested in learning more, drop me a line.