Sunday, October 4, 2009

The Hang

At around the same time I discovered the udu, I also came across another amazing instrument. The Hang is like an upside down steel drum. It looks kind of like a UFO or something but it has one of the most hypnotic sounds I've ever heard. After watching this video your going to wonder why your not playing one of these right now. In fact if I had one I would be playing it instead of blogging:



After watching that I know your interested, at least I was, but the problem is that they're impossible to get a hold of. They were created in Bern, Switzerland originally in the year 2000 by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer of  The PANart Company. The company only accepts orders for the Hang by mail however. And if they get to your letter on their two year waiting list you can't just have the Hang shipped to you. You have to travel to their workshop in Switzerland to pick it up. So it's pretty hard to obtain one of these nowadays. Occasionally, there are sales on eBay of Hanghang (believe it or not, that's the plural form of Hang) but the auctions have reached extraordinarily high prices. I think one Hang went for around $10,000 before. Luckily, there is one alternative producer of a hang type knock off. The Halo, by Pantheon Steel, a US based company. They are also on around a two year wait however. We'll see what the future holds for this amazing instrument. Maybe someday I'll be able to play one. 

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