RPgea3: A Handpan Gathering

Introduction to RPgea3

RPgea3 was a handpan gathering in Austin, Texas. It took place on October 26, 2014 from 3pm until 10:30pm at Flintlock Heaven. Like RPgea and RPgea2, the celebrations included a potluck dinner and live, improvisational music featuring idiophones, which are commonly referred to as handpans.

RPgea is a wonderful gathering of handpan enthusiast, players and friends. The comrade and atmosphere is similar to big ticket events like Traveling Song, Pantasia, Hang In Azores, Hangout UK, Hangout USA, Song of the forest and Handpangea. However, RPgea is more of a down-home get together and it is free of charge.

Jeremy Dinieri, the moderator of the Texas Handpan Cabal facebook group, and RP Watson organized the event.

RP the Host

The name RPgea is a salute to RP Watson, the host of the gathering. It is a play on words combining RP with Handpangea (the first large scale gathering of handpans in the western hemisphere).

RP is the legendary waterman of Barton Springs who is known for his aqua Halo technique. He built his home, Flintrock Heaven, with an appreciation of acoustics and managed to incorporate various “sound chambers” that amplify sound.

Photo by Jeremy Dinieri

Handpans, Players & Friends

There were over 16 people that came to the party. Most seemed to be talented musicians and singers. Two came from Dallas, TX. Two made it from San Angelo, TX. The rest were Austin locals.

There were 14 different scales or sound models of handpan:

8 Halos from Pantheon Steel (1 Eb Shiraz, 1 Golden Gates, 2 MP9, 1 Blues, 1 Celtic Minor, 1 Akebono, 1 La Sirena)
1 Symphonette Nitrided Earth Prototype from Dave’s Island Instruments
3 BellArt Bells (Protus Premier, Moxoholistic Premier, V1 Kaffa)
1 Echo Sound Sculpture
1 Zen Handpan (Celtic Minor)

Other instruments included Native American flutes, didgeridoo, piano, udo, hand drums, shakers and more.

Photo by Jeremy Dinieri

Photo by Jeremy Dinieri

Good Food

A potluck is a meal with no particular menu. People participate by bringing a dish for all to share.

The feast at RPgea3 included pizza, apple pie, hummus, raw vegetables, and grapes, mixed nuts, chips & salsa, angel hair pasta, vegetarian lasagna, bread and dessert.

Photo by Jeremy Dinieri

Good Music, Good Fun

RP made recordings and look for them on his soundcloud page.

Photo by Jeremy Dinieri

Hangism and Panism

Hangism and Panism is a work of art (or design) created by using a single digital image of a PanArt Hang or handpan. The image is duplicated, flipped, rotated, moved, and layered as needed. And, various adjustment details are applied.

Visit the online store for Hangism prints.

Visit the online store for Panism prints.