Lovely simplicity – it feels great to fly again on your carpet.

This is the second video that I make to promote my new studio album Omega. Thank you for sharing it with your family and friends, helping the music to spread out.

Simplicity is my first composition for two handpans played simultaneously. It is composed on a Halo and a 2nd Gen Hang. Here are the tunings :

Halo DXD : C/ F G Bb C D Eb F G
Hang 2nd gen : D/ A Bb C D F G A Bb

The combination of notes for simplicity are based on 3 different scales:
Bb Ionian Mode
C Dorian Mode
G Phrygian Mode

Shortly after the release of Omega, my second studio work, the core instrument of my compositions needed to go back to the source for a shape-lifting. I haven’t been able to play most of the compositions since then, but finally the long wait is over and it really paid off!

This is Prince of Persia, track no. 11 from my second album Omega.
The track is a composition for three handpans :
Halo Aegean : C/ E G B C D F# G B
Halo DXD : C/ F G C Bb D Eb F G
Hang 2nd gen: D/ A C D F G A Bb

The combination of notes is structured on the Kartzigar & Nikriz modes.

Thank you for sharing this music with your family and closest friends. This is a valuable help to spread the music.

14 tracks + 1 hidden bonus
60 minutes of quiet music for a tranquil life

Have you ever heard the rain playing a handpan?

Birth // Experience // Death // Afterlife //

Pink Floyd, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Miles Davis, John Coltrain, Cinematic Orchestra, the heartbeat, Stephan Micus, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, the rhythmic patterns of trains as they run on junctions, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, the sound of water; rain, waterfalls, drops in buckets, waves crashing on the shore, Zakkir Hussein, John Mclaughlin, Codona, Tuatara, the Residents, the Young Gods, Beirut, Portico Quartet, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Hesius Dome, F.S.O.L., Underworld, motors running on idle, the symphony of home electronic appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators, Sigur Ros, The Album Leaf, Lanterna, Radiohead, Christof Dienz, AOA, the iconic compilation “Iconic” by Psyharmonic records, the melody of Bells at the main church in Karlovasi, Apparat, Ochre, Recue, Telefon Tel Aviv, EdIT, Aphex Twin, Squarpusher, Ozric Tentacles, Porcupine Tree, rising in love and falling in love or out of love if you prefer, Massive Attack, Dj Shadow, Amon Tobin, oh well…

this is just to name a few…

Hi,

Most probably you are reading this because you are interested in finding out where you can buy a handpan.

“A handpan”? you ask yourself. “What is this? I thought the name was Hang Drum”.

The first people ever to make a Hang, was a tribe of alliens from planet Sedna who were forced to find a home on our planet in the rainforests of Switzerland due to a malfunction in the levitating antigravity operating system of their spacecraft. That was many thousands years ago when Switzerland did not have the Alps, melted cheese, perfectly accurate clocks and by all means was not the home of bank accounts of many corrupted politicians. This tribe passed their knowledge secretly from generation to generation and nowadays after so many aeons, the making process is sophisticated beyond any limit.

I feel quite inspired today but I will continue with the true facts and write another fictional post in the – very distant – future.

The makers of the Hang is a small 2-person company called PANArt. Their HQ is in Bern, Switzerland (maybe there is some truth in the above after all?). They invented the instrument around the year 2000 after many years of experimenting and research and up until a couple of years ago, they were the only makers. Yes, they do not have a website and yes you cannot buy a Hang in a shop. If you would like to be considered as a potential candidate, you are required to write a letter and send it to them. There used to be a time, when the path towards the Hang was often referred to as pilgrimage. I dont know if people regard it as such nowadays. The very first step of that path was finding that address. Once you find the address, you are advised to do a little bit of research on the instrument. Find about its history. Find about the philosophy of the makers and the purpose they build the instrument. The most important however is to ask yourself  : “why do I want a Hang“?

Actually, there is a lot of misinformation out there and its good that we try to clarify things in order to avoid misunderstandings, the first and perhaps most important and frequent of which revolves around the name of the instrument; erroneously, it is widely know as “Hang Drum”. I will pause for a second so that I will copy and paste the definition of the word “drum” :

Drum: The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player’s hands, or with a drum stick, to produce sound.

Nowhere on the Hang is there a membrane. By definition then, the Hang is not a drum. Consider it as a drum and bang it as drummers do and very soon the bones of your fingers will ache, not to mention that the instrument will get out of tune. I have the impression that the tag “drum” came out as a youtube consequence. Since the word “hang” has a variety of meanings in the English lingo, adding the tag drum helps the videos to surface in the massive sea of videos containing the word hang on the title.

Personally speaking and most probably contrary to the ideology of the makers, I consider the Hang to be a percussion instrument. The word “percussion” in Greek is “krousto” (I would love to write it in Greek letters but for some strange reason wordpress gets confused – I have to investigate on that) and the root comes form the verb “krouo” – to hit/strike/tap. For sure there are many ways to invoke the sound of the Hang but the most frequent of all is to tap it.

You will wonder perhaps, why I am so obsessed with the details. The truth is that I am not. The makers though are. Very much indeed. They do not even like the classification of the Hang as a percussion instrument – perhaps because we humans like to bang on things as hard as we can as if we want to check the breaking point or simply because we have the need to be heard; consequently we play loud, speak out loud…in general terms we are loud as a species in general. Being very hard on the Hang is viewed by the makers as disrespectful and they are in pain when they service mistreated instruments – and who would not be? In any case, whether you agree with it or not, the truth is that PANArt does not like it at all when people knock at their door asking them for their creation – of which they are very passionate – and they do not even know how to name it. So get informed, learn the story and their philosophy, know what you want and everything – hopefully – should be ok.

There is a well updated and organised blog where you have access to all sorts of information. You can visit that blog by clicking here. As far as the address is concerned, yeap, you have guessed right;  I am not going to reveal it to you. Try to find it yourself. It is much easier these days than five years ago.

Recently more people entered the arena of creation, making their own versions of the Hang. However, the name “Hang” has been legally protected by PANArt and hence no-one can use it. After a lot of friction and discomfort, the Hang community decided to name the family of Hang type instruments as “handpan”.

As aforementioned the number of makers is now increasing around the planet and soon we might have a maker representing each country but until then you could get yourself in the queue with the following:

Pantheon Steel – American based company. Their instrument is known as Halo.
Bellart – Spanish company. The instrument is called as Bells.

There is also a maker from Russia who impresses the community with his tuning skills. His name is Victor Levinson. You can see a lot of his creations on youtube videos. The instrument does not have an official name yet; it is known in the community as “SPB”.

Lastly, you could buy a Hang at an ebay auction, but I would highly disencourage you from doing so. There is lots of speculation out there, a lot of ebay auctions are scums and more importantly, I think it is utterly insane to pay amounts such as 5000 Euros for an instrument that was priced at 300 Euros only 7 years ago.

Well, that is all I had to say. I wish you the best in your pilgrimage towards the hang and will leave you with the advice I was given form a fellow hang player after I had sent my letter to Bern: “If you do not have a hang but want one then … HANG ON”

Keep it real,

Spyros

Hello and welcome to my new website.

It took a little bit of time to create it, but I hope you will enjoy your stay here.
You can learn a few things about the instruments I play, bits and pieces of my history, info about my discography, watch videos, see photos. Stop. Take a breath.

The website has a store section where you can directly stream my studio work. If my music speaks to your heart you can support me by purchasing a download or a physical copy. When you choose to get the CD, you are also able to download the digital files. Thank you for your support.

At the footer of the website there are buttons that link to various social networking websites. Click on them and visit my profiles on facebook, soundcloud, twitter and youtube. C u there.

As there have been a few of you who expressed interest in my photography, I am currently working on a section of the website, where you will be able to download for FREE backgrounds wallpapers for your desktop or iphone or both. I will keep you posted on that.

In the upper right corner there is circular button and if you press it a player will be launched. Enjoy the tunes.

Last but not least, there is a blog that I will try my best to keep active.

Well, that is all for now. I hope I did not forget something.
Enjoy your stay at my personal e-space and see you soon.

Oh…and one more thing…Please sign the guestbook!

Bye for now.