About Us
Hello! Let’s introduce ourselves!
We are Elisa and Marco, we are Italians and we make handpans.
But we are the kind of handpan makers who prefer to introduce themselves starting from a long time ago, like Star Wars opening theme where you get to read all that’s happened in between the two movies and then you fall asleep.
So… Let’s start with our beautiful Elisa
She was a silent girl, always nice and pretty. One day, her father gave her a pencil and she started drawing on everything, paper, floors, dogs and a bird with a broken leg she found. His name was Speedy, and he was happy to see his foster family when they came back from work.
Then Elisa became an artist, an art restorer, an art teacher and an Egyptologist, finally painting on ancient Egyptian rocks as she had always dreamt. And one day she met Marco.
Who the hell is this Marco guy?
Marco was a nice boy, a little and language enthusiast and a music fan.
When he was a child he used to play Age of Empires singing Queen’s or Sting’s songs, and he grew to be an interpreter with the passion for music and guitar, drums, bass, whatever playing.
He became an English and Spanish teacher, but then Chinese and Japanese fascinated him with their symbols and Metalcore bands, of course playing Final Fantasy was a huge boost to that.
The Hagane NoTe Genesis (a fancy anime title for this part)
After meeting in the school we used to teach for, we went on to live together in a small flat near a wonderful park in Monza. We loved our job, but we were also looking for some purpose in life, and we spent so much time looking for a new direction, for a project we would love and that would change our lives.
After some years of investigation, we decided to spend some time in the city of Barcelona. We have always felt this bond with this wonderful city, a sort of attraction for its Modernist architecture and the sense of being the person you wish to be when you live in there. We started exploring. Elisa is an artist, so we went from art gallery to art gallery promoting her works of art. Marco is an eternal language and music student, who had left some stuff unresolved with the city when he left it after the Erasmus was over. So we got back once for some months, and then again for another period.
We closed the pending stuff we had, cleared our minds, and the change we had always wanted appeared on our paths. That crazy summer we met a pirate who showed us how to make handpans.
For us, it was like a sign. Marco can still remember the first time he listened to its hypnotic sound, a warm summer when a band named Barnakustica was playing under the Glorieta in the Parco de la Ciutadella. Elisa, she is the dreamer and the guide Marco has always wanted to share his life with.
Barcelona and the handpan are strictly tied, an invisible bond that makes the city even more magic. And after the pirate showed us the map for this treasure of life we were looking for, we felt it was the right thing to do, embracing the life change that scares but we knew was right.
And here is where we are, we took all the things we are and put them into this big cauldron that has become Hagane NoTe.
(The story is a lot fancier, featuring hookers and drunkards, long walks to Mordor and to the beach, falling off staircases and trivial grand theft auto).
Handcrafted and Customizable Handpans
We make customized handpans.
Our graphics distinguish each instrument, maintaining the instruments’ musical attributes.
Handcrafted instruments
High quality products
Maintenance and assistance
Customized graphics