While there’s no denying that 2016 was a spectacular year for the world of Handpan, in terms of the number of new makers hitting the scene, making a whole range of new instruments available to those who just a few years prior would have found it incredibly difficult to get their hands on a Handpan of their own. It was also an amazing year for Handpan music.
And while the ever popular YouTube has offered-up some truly awe-inspiring audio-visual Handpan extravaganzas - the album, in its classic format of a collection of tunes, still remains a popular medium through which Handpan musicians have been able to present and share their extended musical messages and visions, to us, the lovers of the Handpan’s sound.
Handpans Magazine Album of the Year - 2016
With so many great Handpan albums having been released in 2016 choosing a favourite is a daunting task. However, for the purposes of this post, and assisting our readers in sniffing out the very finest Handpan music available for your listening pleasure, for us here at HPM, one album has stood out above all others over the year gone, standing up to endless listenings, and never growing tired, or losing any of the magic we felt upon first hearing it. And that album is, “Panacea”, by Panakos Project.
Recorded by Miguel Angel Amoros Benitez, and Daniel von Borries Cardeña, Panacea, captures perfectly everything we love about Handpan music. It is primarily pure Handpan, it intertwines beautifully the two sometimes conflicting elements of Handpan-play, the melodic, and the percussive, and equally blends the line perfectly between being uplifting, and melancholy, to create as divine a soundscape as we have ever heard. - with a continuity running throughout the entire album that we find pleasing. Earning Panacea, by Panakos Project, the award of Handpans Magazine’s “Album of the Year, 2016”, take a listen below…