The history behind JZ Soundart Handpans

How it started

I’m living and producing handpans in Atna, a small village in beatifull nature in Norway.

I am a creative person. Passionate about sounds, frequensies, music, musical instruments and art. I’m playing multiple instruments and have played and recorded music since early age. Both by myself and together with many fantastic musicians.

I am lucky to have found a craft where I can apply all my skills and knowledge in to one place! 

During this time I have been developed more and more interest in the making of instruments. I’ve experimented with making flutes and didgeridoos, and I have learned to make jaw harps. And became more interested in metal and sounds. It was around twenty years since I heard and saw a handpan for the first time in Barcelona/Spain. A street musician was playing the handpan while throat singing, and I was amazed!

After that I wasn’t presented with an opportunity to either see or play a handpan, untill 2016. At that time more and more videos of handpan-playing was presented on YouTube, and the idea of making my own handpans was born. From that point I started to research and to get the tools and materials that I needed to get started with making handpans. Still during this time I never played or even met with an existing handpan. I tried and failed making handpan for two years, working sporadically with the project and trying to get more info on the procedures.

It was not until in the start of 2019 I had the opportunity of playing on handpans for the first time, some amazing handpans made by Ayasha and Jan Borren in Amsterdam, while visiting them. Luckily for me, these amazing makers shared some of their knowledge about the making which I am very grateful for! I also had some great help from another maker, Karumi from Poland via email correspondence. When I was coming home from that journey I was very inspired. And in the end of 2019 I had finished the first handpan that I was satisfied with.

This was a point in my life when I was crying many times from creative happiness, true story… I was proud that I managed to stay focused on a task that many times felt like impossible for so long time, and that I finally got to the point where I could start developing the details instead of struggling to get the basics right. This was indeed a rewarding feeling.

I love making handpan! The amount of details that can vary is infinite. That’s also part of why every handpan I make have their own personality, sound and feeling. Not one handpan sounds exactly the same as another. I believe that handpans can be used therapeutically and is a great tool for meditation as well as an instrument that fit well in with many music-styles and instrument settings.