After finishing my job as a music teacher in Sorsele in June 2024, I was now at a stage where I recorded a lot of music before I moved away from Sweden, processing all the files later in Cyprus.

So far, I just had published my first handpan album, along with one elctro-song and my first piano-album that happend by accident (birth of something). Just to give it a try and see how it works. And make it convenient for people to listen to, because this is how a lot of people do it these days.

Those releases were online for about 14 months now. Without any advertisement, just posting about it on my youtube and facebook account, it got me 10,14 USD in royalties for my own music. I decided to withdraw to mark the end of my first chapter in releasing music. I paid about 4 times more for just my distributor to publish this music on Spotify and co. Yet, I celebrated the first 10 Dollars of music-stream revenue by paying with them my meal in the plane to Cyprus. That tasted good.

Because with the help of a mentor, now I had decided to go into Pro-Mode. My experimenting lead to recording music for several albums on different instruments and my piano-channeling looked promising too. The feedback was more than good enough for the music I was able to produce myself at this stage, so it should just be a matter of time, effort and strategy from here onwards to make at least a living from it.

If you want to know the details: If a listener plays back a song for at least about 30 seconds, it is usually counted as 1 stream. I had 1.185 Streams. Which translates into less than 1 Cent per Stream (0,85 Cents) - which is good compared to market average here. Deal with it.

I realised meanwhile, with the jobs as a music teacher in Germany and Sweden, playing one year as a drummer in military service and some years full time in other bands with paid gigs, I already can say, that for the majority of the years in my working age, I have worked with music. So, let's get serious. And have serious fun meanwhile.

2nd handpan album: Waterfall dreams 1

Before I would leave northern Sweden, I wanted to go to a nearby waterfall. So, I took both handpans with me and recorded some songs. Because I somehow wanted to record both or at least see what suited better in those surroundings ...

This text about this album and the next album will contain regular images (not clickable), as the video is not processed yet.

The view looking away from the waterfall. A bit cloudy and chilly this day.

I chose to recorded a few songs with the Meridian handpan first. You can hear the waterfall gently in the background. It has a nice relaxing effect, having the waterfall's sound on the recording. So, this music is good for calming down and releasing whatever stress.

Meridian on the back, backpack in front - hands free to carry the RAV and take a selfie.

I ended up just using only the Meridian handpan on this day. The Meridian session was very nice and I liked the walk in this surroundings. I had the idea to play somewhere on my way down in the forest with the RAV ... but then there were just too many mosquitos in the forest - up on the waterfall there where next to none. Yet, good excercise having a walk with two handpans. I took the next day to recover.

Playing and recording is going easy now ... but: How to name all those songs now? I do not want to have random names for songs. From here on, I am lucky to have my friend Barbara helping me with finding names for them. I somehow can barely name what I am playing about for most of the songs from this chapter. And I also ask her for her opinions about the cover-artwork for the music. Thanks a lot, Barbara! This may seem to be a simple thing, but it is nothing less than the first step of moving away from the mindset of "I do everything myself". Which is an important step for developing whatever small business.

The water falling on the head from that height is a bit uncomfortable, but apart from that it was a nice cold shower, connecting me with the place and myself before I started playing.

3rd handpan album/EP: Waterfall dreams 2

After my first day at the waterfall, a friend told me "you can also go up that mountain to the top, where the water is coming from". So, I went the other day again. Also because I had not used the RAV on the first occasion.

My toughest handpan recording

I was there early in the morning - the sun is just rising over the mountain.

At first, I went sideways to the mountain, trying to find a good spot to go up to the top level - it was a steep cliff most of the time, not possible to climb up. I came to a place where it was not possible to continue sideways. There were some steep smaller rocks offering something like a route up. I knew, when I start climbing up, it would be too messy to go down this route with all the equipment. So that meant: I probably would have to go around all of the mountain until it goes down gently. I checked the map. Possible, yet a long route. My body said: finally time I get used! So: Let's do it.

Up there, I was then really wondering, why am I actually doing this. I have seen people taking risks or action for promoting whatever that they regret afterwards. Have I become one of them?

No, it was not for my youtube-channel. I had already more than enough music and videos in nature. This one will not make a difference for that reason.

I came to the conclusion: It became a habit to go in nature with the handpan for me. And I just wanted to see, how it is up there. It is just more fun for me playing outdoors in nature than indoors all the time. And also playing without audience gives me space to explore new ideas at first. And here I find inspiration from the place in nature. I love this combination. It is me being me.

A fallen over tree, displaying its roots.

There is no trail. No signs. No staircases. No handrail. It is wildernes. And I love it like that. I have just seen a few paths that animals seem to use up there. And it looks - and more importantly - feels like there has not been too many humans for a long time. It was just maybe another 50 meters in height up compared to where the waterfall comes down, but there were some different plants I have not seen around before.

It was a unique atmosphere up there. And probably nobody ever played or recorded music here. For the recording, I placed myself nearby the river just a bit before it will fall down that mountain, you can hear it in the background. When you allow yourself to sink into the recording, it can give you a refreshing experience.

What a view. Perfect weather today for this trip.

A little premiere is on the second track: I use my voice on top of the handpan a bit.

This hike took 12 hours in total. Within that time maybe 3-4 hours combined for playing and resting. Never paid attention to how much this stuff actually weighs ... until I returned this day. Handpan in hardcase: 8,5 kg. The backpack with laptop, recording interface, my two large diapraghm microphones with small stand and cables plus borrowed GoPro: 9kg. Makes 17,5kg total. The laptop powers the interface, which powers the microphones - it can run for hours with just the laptop's battery. Pretty easy and mobile setup therefore, yet a lot of stuff.

I switched to this recording setup because my camera broke earlier on another mountain (the tripod was blown down by the wind and my beloved stereo camera mic had issues since a while with noise occasionally on one channel). Climbing the mountain with 17kg equipment, including one bottle of water and just two bananas - more food did not fit into the backpack (you can drink the water up there if needed, which I made use of). I was not expecting 12 hours of hiking. But it was wonderful up there. Glad I took only one handpan with me and left my drums and piano at home. If anybody would like to get me a piano up there or has a chance for me to play something in other unusual places - text me.

I was prepared with 1 year trainig in the gym, good shoes and gloves to be able to grab onto everything fast and tight. I also had clothes that covered arms and legs completely although it was warm, but I prefer to protect my body from scratches when going through a bush etc. - I have done some wilderness trips here before. I returned without a single scratch and with no blisters on the feet or whatsover. That is what I am proud of. I am glad to have some climbing experience and my body was in good shape that day. I could not be happier with my body here. I am glad I have done it, so I now know, what it is like on top of that mountain.

Back in my car just after the hike.

On the tough situations, I kept the camera off. And I know how to stay calm. Occasionally I needed full attention, one mistake would have caused at least serious injury. I would not be able to make music for a while then or maybe worse. I was prepared to leave equipment behind in worst case or call a helicopter in case of an accident. That was not what I aimed for when starting this trip, but I somehow got myself into this. At least even in this remote area you usually have internet in Sweden. I took a break and had a phone call up there with a friend. She was seriously worried after I explained where I was. I assured I have left more than enough battery to call for help if needed. Usually you should do this with somebody together to look after each other. Anybody up for following me to such trips?

You can enjoy the recording risk and stress free without going into such terrain.

30th: Resonating from within

My first at home recording with the Meridian. Using a delay effect (every note I hit, is repeated a few times before it fades out). For me, this is the hardest song to listen to that I got. After releasing it took me three times to listen to it to feel it.

There is always some time between editing and releasing, and so I celebrate the release by hearing it the first time via the streaming service on my mobile. This one was strange to listen to then somehow. I had a completely different feeling when playing and editing it. But after a while, I started liking it again. Interesting.

31st: Handpan Session in the dark

The first released proper session video with my Meridian Custom Handpan. It was recorded after my major recording session (over a week) where I played all the instruments and experimented with a lot of lights. So here it is: my experiment of playing handpan in UV light.

I like the second half of the session where I calm down into some groove. This was just a demo and recorded with my iPhone - the sound was better than expected, so I released it as it is. The time was up and the recording equipment packed away already, but I took this extra time to have it as visual test for maybe a later session, as at least the light was still set up.

The camera I used for my other videos prior was blown to the ground at the nearby mountain and so it quit its service. There I wanted to record some cajon, but I could not find a spot that fitted and it was too windy. So: No recording happened and my camera got killed. This can also happen. At least it was good excercise carrying all the equipment back and forth.

Compared to all other handpan videos to date, this is the video with the least clicks. Sometimes a visual does not work out as a thumbnail. So: in this form maybe not worth doing again in terms of resulting clicks.

4th handpan album: "Ravalove"

It was time to further try indoor recording with all that I have learned also on the RAV. I used the delay effect again to create what I call soundjourneys or sound landscapes. This way, every note I hit, is repeated a few times before it fades out.

I had some flow and recorded "Ravalove" with 6 songs in this style and setup in one go.

One song ("ageless recollections") got a full video so far:

38th: ?

As of February 2025, when publishing this page the first time, there is one more handpan recording left to be published from my swedish archive. This one will probably hit different. Will take me a while to get it where I want it to be before releasing it.

And there is many ideas how to combine handpan with the other instruments I play. We will see how this journey continues.

This page may not be updated with each release. This page appreciates my four-year-journey with handpan music to make a bit of the effort behind such a journey resulting in a few hours of handpan music visible. As an artist in general, I can recommend being a fan of your own music, yet not taking it or yourself too seriously. Keep it fun. And yes, in all the details around music I can still get lost and loose the fun. But as always: as you gain experience, some things get easier when repeating and you get to know yourself better.

Creating this page was fun. It was somehow interesting to review this journey for myself. Reminding me of all the lessons that I learned.

Always happy to hear, when somebody got something out of such efforts I made in publishing all of this, for example in a youtube comment. And/or maybe forward a song or this crazy long page to a friend. Thank you!

See my youtube-channel for latest videos and other instruments maybe.

Have you seen my instructional videos for handpan playing?

Want to browse as well my Piano Music Diary?

If you want to support me: Pick your favourite songs of mine, create a playlist for them and listen to those often. Then I do not only get a small royalty, but the algorithm has also a chance to learn and find people that like my songs too, based on your overall taste of music. Thank you!

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