Instruments

The UFOnium

Entrancing sound and appearance in a portable, robust, handcrafted construction.

The UFOnium is a fully pimped steel tongue or ‘hank’ drum. It’s the result of painstaking tinkering of standard designs, always keeping the musician in mind. While hank drums are rare in themselves, our drums pack a number of innovations to create a unique playing and listening experience:

  • A full harmonic minor scale (and then some), with 12 tongues
  • Uniquely arranged tongues with adjacent notes in harmony wherever possible – most adjacent notes are a minor 3rd, major 3rd, 4th, 5th, or octave apart – making for intuitive playing
  • Painstakingly hand-cut circular tongues allowing more control of note placement compared to standard straight sided tongues, while also looking slick
  • Magnetic or threaded tuning systems let notes be lowered by a semitone or more – up to a few tones for the higher notes – or we can make custom tunings to your specs
  • Optional internal locking ring allows the instrument to be secured with a padlock. Doubles as a bottle opener.
  • While the instruments have naturally lush sustain, optional custom note dampening allows faster playing or just a different sound
  • Enhanced note purity through internal body dampening to lessen ‘ring’
  • Optional adjustable internal ‘buzzers’, shoulder straps, wall-mounting brackets and floor stands.
  • Dimensions: roughly 375 x 210mm.

In line with our aural meets aesthetic manifesto, the UFOnium looks like something beautiful from another world… hence the name. Beginning with sustainably sourced recycled gas cylinders, anywhere from 10 to over 50 hours of work go into creating each UFOnium which is reminiscent of a giant M&M or alien spacecraft. This is an instrument that will entrance with its sound and hypnotise with its sleek aesthetics.