Hang Massive

Marvellous Instruments n°1

Programming / Music

Hang, this is not a new onomatopoeia.
It’s not that I would have fallen on my head again –

No – Hang is the name given in old Norse to the Viking leader’s shield, which he brandished to galvanize his troops. One found absolutely fabulous specimens in the tumulus of Oseberg. What do you mean : no ? How no? But yes, it is a shield – just look at the picture, you can see it, right?

No ? well – okay – no. The Hang is not a shield. All right, all right, I go to work, I look for what can be this shield which is not a shield at all – I go I go – but hey, if you need, one day, a shield, it can work.

It’s no more spaceships that fell in a garden

It’s not a failed test of a genetically modified lens to make the iron pop out of it
It’s not two kinds of pots and pans for large families that were glued together

No, no – the Hang is a musical instrument.
And – hey, wait – I see you, you’re laughing – it’s a serious subject – please – merci – I’m working on it – yes, I do, yes yes

So the Hang is still not an instrument that came straight out of a rainforest we didn’t know existed
-it’s not vintage
– it’s not a reconstruction of Babylonian instruments

No no no – it is a very new musical instrument.

It was invented by two Swiss musicologists: Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer, in Bern, in 2000 :

The Hang is The millennium instrument.

Be careful, here is its definition: the Hang is a hollow lenticular volume composed of two stamped metal cups. The upper part of the instrument is called the “ding” and consists of a fundamental note and seven or eight surrounding notes. The lower part, “gu”, is a smooth surface with a hole in its center.

This definition is very pretty – I don’t understand it at all, but it’s nice.

It seems that the Hang does not produce notes but sounds – and I hope you are as amazed as I am – okay, I have never understood note dictation – I am not qualified – and that it allows us to bring out our richness of sound.
From my literary point of view, these are useless words and a bit scary – on the other hand, to listen to the sounds of the Hang, it is really quite a wonderful pleasure.

As a result, Hang Massive is a band that makes full use of this new instrument :

They were supposed to come to us – well – they will – in the meantime, you and I have the video clips.

All in all, I did a lot of work to find that it was a shield that made sounds.

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Featured Image : a real Hang, by its real creators – PanArt is the sign