The Hang

No, it’s not from India, Nepal or China, the hang is in fact a recent Swiss innovation from 2001. Felix Rohner & Sabina Schärer worked for several years on breathing life into their idea of a hand-played steeldrum and the result is definitely a success!

The cosmic tunes of the hang remind many people of the harp or even the piano, yet it has more to it. Sensitive people can feel the hangmusic flow through their bodies, like a soothing massage.

To some it feels like a sound that must always have been part of our world, not like a new instrument but like something rather ancient. Like a lost tone that has been rediscovered.

The early hangs were available in different keys and every instrument was unique in its own way. The procedure of getting a  hang and also the (sound)design of the instrument has changed over the years.

By the way, the name hang comes from the Bern word for hand. Shilan plays the hang with her hands as well as soft sticks in order to get different sounds out of it.