What started at a festival in south sweden with the first earglimpse of a genunine handpan and its otherworldy soundwaves created by the artist, was the foundation of an interest in sounds and instruments that peak the ears and relaxes the mind. Instruments that at first sight (a sence notorious for being bad at hearing) don’t appear much but after one stroke can make a room go quiet.
In the mountains of south spain bergtagna (meaning “taken by mountains” in swedish) was taught how to build hankdrums (i.e. Steel tongue drums). And so hobojim hankdrums was born.
In the ten years that has passed since then a lot of different scales and varieties have been constructed always staying true to building them from recycled materials.
During the Covid pandemic when the world paused for a breath, bergtagna went the other way and dove into the instrument maker pool. Going over the works of bart hopkin and the brothers baschet the hanging ladder chime and a 3.5 octave cristal (euphone) were born and added to the repertoire.
In the otherside workshop in the countryside of south sweden hobojim hankdrums so developed into Bergtagna Instruments.