Ki Instruments
One of my favorite parts about being in the music business for the last several decades has been finding up-and-coming builders, often on the brink of inevitable success. In the past, these have been guitar builders, but nowadays I turn my attention to handpan builders. As the list of handpan makers (especially here in the US) begins to grow, there are many diamonds in the rough out there, just waiting to be discovered.
One such entrant to the trade is Kim Williams, builder of Ki Instruments. She cut her teeth building and tuning for other, larger builders, and has recently ventured off on her own. I met her at the 2026 Heartland Hangout (which everyone reading this should attend next year!). We had a lovely chat about the art of building, after which I knew I had to try out her instruments.
These sorts of test-runs of a new builder can be fraught; I've often walked away a bit crestfallen. But not so with these. After a quick play-through and a jam, I knew right away that I wanted these in my shop. The tone is rich, saturated, and lively. My local musician friends have said that these are their favorite handpans out of all my inventory.
And here's one of my favorite things about working with Kim: While I was at the Heartland Hangout, I was surprised to see how often people would find their way into some corner to jam together. It was the lingua franca of the entire weekend. The problem with this can be that while there are always a whole lot of D Kurds around, more often than not folks have tunings that don't quite match up.
So wouldn't it be great to have a pair of handpans that just fit together? Players with a bit of music theory under their belt will know that a major scale can easily pair with a relative minor (both use the same notes in a different arrangement), but with scale names like "Witching Hour" and "Astronaut" and "Pygmy", who knows which handpans go with each other? Kim's vision is to build pairs of instruments with this in mind. She calls them "best friends". I think this is brilliant.
I hope to stock these in matching pairs, although it's very likely that they'll sell one at a time. I'll do my best to keep pairs on hand.
