I ran across this instrument today. Not much range, but interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7NoZYsixa0

It's a halo drum.
Not tapping at all. Hand drumming melodies and harmonies
pretty
Lee

Actually Steve, it is not a "Halo" but a " Harmonic Art". Kind of like saying a Warr is a Stick . These drums are generically known as "hand pans" and the original was made by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer in Bern Switzerland and is called a "Hung" or Hung Hung usually pronounced "Hang" or "Hang Drum". The company that they made is called "PanArt".

The demand for these drums, the original PanArt drums was so huge that there was no way to keep up with demand. I don't believe there are any patents other than on the name. A lot of people are making knock-offs because of this and I have seen original
Hang Drums sell on Ebay for over 10k No fooling, out of sight ... So there is a big void to fill.

To my knowledge there are PanArt drums, Bell Art, and now these " Harmonic Art". There are also
"Halo's" that Steve mentioned made in the good old USA by a company called "Pantheon Steel" who started out as high end steel drum builders. Imo these are the best, but I am biased.

Again because of demand Halo's are usually sold by lottery and at a fair price. I was lucky enough to win and have spent a lot of time with this kind of instrument. Not to disagree with Steve too much but because of the sensitivity of the drum and because the tone fields are both melodic and percussive you do use your finger tips to tap out the melody and bass.
But the other level of rhythm, beat and drumming is there too so it splits the mind the same way that the Stick does, that is until you put it all back together . Just saying from experience, these instruments can be challenging to play well.

jRj
*j*
.~

JRJ - Thanks for that info.

Man! That was quite gorgeous!

I'm pretty sure Cliff Martinez plays some form of these. I you like this, check out the soundtrack for the film "Solaris".

Challenging to play well for sure. I can't produce a good tone on the ones I've played in Bali. It may be the quality of the instrument, it may be me, or it might be the entire concept doesn't fly 100% and might still need some tweaking.

I played some duets with Jan Wolfkamp where he was using one of these. The Stick sounds good with it, very different articulations.

That thing came straight from Area 51.....was waiting for a grey alien to pop the top.
Very cool nonetheless.

cheers,
kev