Introduced to the world on the 23rd of January, 2015, at the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) show, held in Anaheim, CA, comes the ‘Ohm’ HandPan, the result of a collaboration between Dave’s Island Instrument's, and Hapi (arguably the world’s most recognisable name in commercially available steel tongue drums).
Not content with bringing the world the first Electric HandPan (to our knowledge), DII (and Hapi) have now unleashed this ‘patent pending’ HandPan / Steel Tongue Drum hybrid instrument - an instrument that features both the tone fields as per a standard HandPan, but additionally, features a complimentary, and sympathetic, circle of tuned tongues.
Not content with bringing the world the first Electric HandPan (to our knowledge), DII (and Hapi) have now unleashed this ‘patent pending’ HandPan / Steel Tongue Drum hybrid instrument - an instrument that features both the tone fields as per a standard HandPan, but additionally, features a complimentary, and sympathetic, circle of tuned tongues.
Enthusiasm for this hybrid over at Facebook has been considerable, and while at time of posting, we only have the one video to go on, it does sound very sweet indeed. With 15 notes in total, the tuned-tongues combine a ghostlike resonance with the Ohm's bold sounding tone-fields - offering up something both familiar, yet very new.
"...this hybrid will change the world of handpans as we know it!" states one fan of the Ohm over at the DII Facebook page. And while that may, or may not, prove to be true. We'd certainly like to get our hands on one for a test-drive...
