IT may not storm the singles charts like the latest rapper or talent show winner.

But a new music production from a Huddersfield expert could well be a big hit.

If you’ve ever fancied listening to the rock music of ancient cave-dwellers, then Rupert Till is your man.

Dr Till, a lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, is playing a leading role in a £3.5m music project.

It will enable people today to hear the music and the instruments of their distant ancestors – from dwellers in caves to audiences at Greek and Roman amphitheatres.

Dr Till – who has already become renowned for projects such as a recreation of the acoustics of Stonehenge – is one of a team of researchers throughout Europe who have devised the European Music Archaeology Project (EMAP).

Dr Till himself will oversee the creation of a special record label, which will feature the project’s findings.

Using a wide range of evidence – including archaeological finds and ancient pictures – the researchers will attempt to reconstruct primitive musical instruments from as long ago as 40,000 BC and as “recently” as 400 AD.

Specialist performers will then experiment with the recreated instruments and reach conclusions about the type of music that was played on them.

Dr Till said: “The project is not really designed to recreate ancient music as such.

“You can’t really know what music sounded like thousands of years ago. But you can produce music that demonstrates the instruments and some of the techniques used.”

The research team also hope to create a travelling exhibition that will display – visually and aurally – the results of the research. The exhibition will be accompanied by concerts and workshops.

Dr Till plans to visit historic venues in Rome, Greece and Pompeii in order to make on-site recordings.

He also plans a “digital time machine” as part of the exhibition.

He said: “You will enter this space and start with a cave in Spain, hearing a bone flute. Then perhaps you will travel to Stonehenge and see someone playing instruments there. You will go forward in time to Greece and hear instruments played in reconstructed acoustics and spaces.

“EMAP is going to be a high-quality, high-impact project and it’s expected that the exhibition will be seen by one and a half million people,” said Dr Till.

Dr Till – who is Senior Lecturer in Music Technology at the University of Huddersfield – has also received funding of £100,000 from the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council for a project entitled Songs of the Caves: acoustics and prehistoric art in Cantabrian caves.

He will study the Altamira prehistoric cave system in Spain, a World Heritage Site.