In our recent post on the Handpans of Arcana Musical Instruments, we wrote that in our opinion, often times Handpan-players seem to go on to make the best Handpan,.later down the tracks. From Aciel’s Michael Colley to Æther’s Colin Foulke, and a host of others, seasoned players who have gone on to take up the hammer, are producing some of the best sounding instruments out there.And anybody who has had a good nose around the Handpans Magazine website, probably knows that accomplished Handpan musician, Rafael Sotomayor, is not just among our favourite performers - but was also the man responsible for making us fall in love with these instruments ourselves, many years ago now, when we first stumbled across the video for his track, Inner Voice. Which makes this post a particular pleasure to share, now that he himself has taken up the hammer, to produce his own range of Handpan, going by the name of “Opsilon”.
Opsilon Handpan
Based in Berlin, Germany, Opsilon Handpan are handmade by Rafael Sotomayor himself. And Rafael describes his goal with the project as being:
"My dream is to make an instrument that touch the soul of the people".
One of our favourite things about the Opsilon Handpan, other than their singing-voice, because we think these are sounding great - is the reason behind their name. Because while often the names of different makes of Handpan appear to be battling it out in a contest to offer up titles and epithets each more "spiritual" sounding than the last - the name for Rafael's Opsilon Handpan, was taken from an imaginary fantasy-planet that Rafael created for himself as a child, "Planet Opsilon". A part of his childhood imagination that now any who play one of his creations, can visit and share in...
