New music: Adorian Vibe
... and other handpan improvisations.
During the past years I didn't really record music with any of my handpans. It was not only a question of time / priority during work life, but also attitude. I appreciated to counterbalance a life which had been too much focussed on the digital world before. I wished to learn a more spontanuous, present and open attitude towards making music - to get away from the idea of composing, refining and then presenting something. But, instead, to make a space to connect with others and to make music together.
Now I'm studying Music Technology, so it might be the right time to connect these two paths. When we got the task to record something at the beginning of the semester, I had only one of my handpans with me here in Trondheim which happened to be my very first one. So it was an occasion to honour this instrument.
The song is based on a first improvisation - handpan, piano, vibraphone and voice - in the studio of our department. We had a breakdown of the technology in the middle of the session (cheers on Macintosh, so reliable!) and lost most of what we had hoped to record, so what you're going to hear is puzzled together from the remains. The beautiful voice is my fellow student Vibeke (in a state of hangover) :]
I also recorded two more improvisations on the other handpans during the past weeks and hope that my crazy study course will eventually grant me a few days off to work on them.
---- playing a handpan ----
One thing that you realize when playing a handpan is that there's more about the instrument than a beautiful sound. Trying to write a midi line to have recorded won't grasp the character of the instrument (which may be true for all instruments actually). Part of the magic is its possibilities and limitations which you explore by actually playing it. A note on one particular handpan can sound very different than the same note on another one. The note layout of each handpan has a high impact on the overall sound and feeling, given that a bit of everything will be sounding on every hit, especially the neighboring notes and the central note which is more or less present everywhere. Appreciating the handpan, in my opinion, means letting go of your expectations in music and opening up to something new. Not trying to push it into a system of chords you may be used to when making music. Not expecting to come up with something different every day (in that case you might quickly get stuck). But instead listening to the language of the instrument. It might be able to lead you off the road of whatever you're familiar with and teach you a new perspective on music which is more subtle, which lives through its rhythm, silence, simplicity and the energy / spontaneity of the moment.
---- About my first handpan ----
The instrument in the song (calling it Adorian) is a living memory of the time when I found out about handpans, my first contact with these beautiful instruments and the great inspiration I found. It has an E3 central note and the circle starts with A3. Depending on the way of playing, the scale can be E minor or A Dorian. It is made of nitrided steel and the two shells are welded together, giving the handpan a more resonant / metallic sound than common handpans (which are, mostly, glued). Back then I didn't know much about handpans or how to play them, so the whole concept of scale was based on a blind guess. Today, after 3 years of crafting handpans myself, I know 20 things which I would make different. That's why I never made the same scale again, and that's one of the reasons why it is, actually, special.
The E instruments, with the standard size, tend to have some roughness in their sound because the main notes tend to trigger the resonance frequency of the shell itself. But an E instrument is great to play together with a guitar. For slow and meditative playing I prefer stainless handpans (they have a longer sustain than the nitrided ones), but I enjoy to practice rhythmic patterns on the Adorian, also because of the metallic transients on the touch. Finally, I still have great pleasure with the Dorian scale itself and the uncommon layout on the instrument. It reminds me of the first patterns I ever came up with and the feeling of bliss in a phase where this handpan, which I had brought home from Strasbourg, was the light in my life. It was symbol of me finding back hope and curiosity about life and people, of my change of ways and attitude. I would take it with me everywhere and take every occasion to play a few notes on it.
Playing and hearing it today, I feel an echo of this inspiration, but also deep gratitude for having been able to live my dream - to move to France and to work in the workshop together with the handpan makers who crafted this instrument for me / together with me.
Sophie
