An instrument for all cultures

28 avril 2014

Going to see the beautiful film french-German-Kurdish "My sweet pepper land" the other day, we were fascinated by this magical scene where the main actress (subtle Golshifteh Farahani) plays an incredible instrument in the mountains in Kurdistan. Haunting music, it invades the soul and seems able to reconcile us with the world despite its blackness.

But what is this instrument??

Circular, metallic, with bumps and hollows, watching the movie we think about a traditional Kurdish instrument : its sound calls to mind both bells, chimes, gongs, flutes ... mixed all! Yes it sounds like an ancestral instrument.

But after some investigation we find out that it is called a HANG and it was first invented by two swiss researchers in 2000! It is thus neither ancient nor Kurdish! It comes from many years of searching, with a complex philosophy behind (energy vibrations, therapeutic properties ...) Its manufacture is immensely demanding, making it a rare and modern instrument.

Rare and modern, it is hard to find, to buy (very expensive) and to try! We hear that people register on waiting lists for 5 years, some producers (other than the first two have set up alternative models) sell hanghang on "lottery" by fairness ... on blogs we read whatever about the difficulty to get them, to play, to be admitted into what seems to be a real inner circle ...

Anyway, it's beautiful to listen and the initial idea of the creators looking to put together harmoniously, in a single instrument, several sonorities from around the world, is pretty attractive in itself.

Hang Solo "This is not a Drum" Rafael Sotomayor