30 years on the road - What PANArt stands for

The anniver­sary year has come to an end. The PANArt team delib­er­ate­ly refrained from cel­e­bra­tions and com­mem­o­ra­tive pub­li­ca­tions. The work in progress has tak­en its course and new sound objects have been cre­at­ed under the hands of our young sound sculp­tors.

Last fall, we had to appear before the High Court in Bern to defend our copy­rights to the Hang sculp­ture. The copy­right we had pre­vi­ous­ly claimed for the sculp­ture we had cre­at­ed was not accept­ed by man­u­fac­tur­ers and retail­ers of pla­gia­rism and led to a so-called declara­to­ry action before the High Court of the Can­ton of Berne.
We wel­come the result­ing debate about cre­ativ­i­ty, inno­va­tion, cul­tur­al appro­pri­a­tion and the broad­er under­stand­ing of music.

We are glad that PANArt Hang­bau Ltd. exists!
It has offered us pro­tec­tion for 30 years. Our work in con­cen­tra­tion needs a roof over our heads because it hap­pens in time­less­ness and free of pro­duc­tion pres­sure. This is the only way to cre­ate a sound object that entices our hands to play every day. Each one is unique and reflects the strength, spir­it and ded­i­ca­tion of its mak­er. It should stay like this!

PANArt, found­ed in 1993, was not a start-up with mar­ket­ing plans and cap­i­tal from oth­er peo­ple’s hands! It still exists today thanks to the PANArt team’s phi­los­o­phy, which stands up to the demand­ing mar­ket: Step by step in the Work of Progress, approach­ing our own mate­r­i­al, the com­pos­ite Pang, fresh every day, and stretch­ing the var­i­ous curved bod­ies with the tun­ing ham­mer.

We have rel­e­gat­ed the machine to its place, the human hand does the deci­sive work. Hence the name of the PANArt brand: HANG.

We wish you all well in the new year and wish all own­ers of a PANArt sound sculp­ture con­tin­ued joy in play­ing. Our doors are open to any­one who wants to make their mind and body dance in free­dom.

New year 2024
Felix Rohn­er and Sabi­na Schär­er
Basil Rohn­er and David Rohner