thanks for answering!

Finlay Macdonald, Kristine West and Gøran Mansson

thanks, already looking into these. Gøran Mansson especially seems up my ally

this video [...] he may have been using a soprano ney

the flute in that video does sound like a ney to me

Georgian salamuri

very interesting. another one to add to my mental collection of folk fipple flutes. the most bagpipe'y of these I have found (through this channel) is the very reedy sounding Pakistani drone flute called Alghoza, played with circular breathing. (the rhythmic breathing makes it sound distinct from a bagpipe, tho)

for reasons of convenience I'd like to stick to the recorder, though