Dubai: This expat is bringing focus back on the viral 'handpans'

In the world of music, handpan is something of a newcomer. The musical instrument first captured popular imagination when Swiss artistes Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer created the hang, an instrument resembling the African steelpan that became so popular in the 2000s that the demand exceeded the supply. The handpan, a modern variation, is made of metal shells with several depressions that determine its notes. While some use it as a percussion instrument, its wider appeal lies in the meditative sounds that are incredibly calming.

For these very reasons, it is not common to think of a 24-year-old slowly and steadily cementing his place in the UAE’s music scene as a handpan player. And yet, this is exactly what Iranian expat Erfan Tousi is attempting to do.

The handpan represents everything that Erfan is in real life — calm and collected. It is also, in some ways, a manifestation of what he loves the most: nature. “My fondest memories from childhood, as I remember it, are going to the park for a picnic. Every time I wanted to play alone, I would reach out for my legos. In just over two hours, my lego would be ready,” says Erfan, who hails from Tehran. “But my love for music did not begin with the handpan. I had been attending classes to learn the guitar for six months.”

Like most boys his age, the lure of nature meant that he would often go camping with his friends. It was on one such trip to Hormuz Island that the then 20-year-old first discovered a man playing the handpan. It was nothing short of a magical experience. It may have been love at first sight, but Erfan was still not convinced about buying the instrument just as yet.

Not until one of his own friends did so, which led him, in turn, to take the plunge. Once he had purchased his own handpan was when Erfan realised how naturally he was connected to the musical instrument. For three months in Tehran, Erfan received training in how the handpan works. After this, it was all about finding his own music. “Because it is such a new musical instrument, you can never really learn it from someone else. They can teach you the basics. But you have to learn it on your own.”

Back home, Erfan would play the handpan in the lush greens of the mountains, sitting and perfecting his notes as breeze blew across. It is said that 432 Hz is the frequency of natural vibrations. A reason why listening to music that is tuned to this frequency is often a calming experience. “The handpan’s frequency is usually 432 Hz. This is why it touches your soul,” says Erfan who dropped out of university education to follow his dreams.

He must have been 22 when Erfan came to live in Dubai two years ago. The move was primarily made to explore life in a different country. As we speak, he says that he is the sort of a person who gets bored all too easily with the same experiences. He fears this sameness and stillness of life. Which is where friends, who he’s known for quite some time, come to his rescue. When he first moved to Dubai, it was these friends and the handpan that kept him company.

In the handpan, he invested time, energy, emotion, and began to sell the pieces to local music enthusiasts. He got the pieces made from suppliers and sold them at Dh1,500, though he says the European versions can go up to Dh2,000. “In fact, on my Instagram page (handpan.dxb), I would talk about different handpans. But then, my friends began to encourage me to play the handpan myself. They said I was good. The more time I spent with handpans, the more I would play one, see how each note would reflect an emotion that I was experiencing at the time,” says Erfan, adding that the early handpans had only eight notes, while the newer ones have 21 notes.