“It was like he channeled something inside he wasn't able to get out with words,” recalled Cox. “Mindblowing.”

The musician asked Josiah how long he’d been playing. He was shocked to learn Josiah had never before tried the instrument.

“At that moment, I discovered what I was born to do,” said Josiah.

* * *

The handpan may look like a Stone Age relic, but it was actually invented about a decade ago by Swiss artists Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer. The two were steelpan makers, and they came up with a new instrument, which they christened the “Hang” meaning “hand” in Bernese German.

Rohner and Schärer formed their company, PANArt, to sell their creations in 2000. Requests started pouring in, and soon they couldn’t meet demand. They received thousands of inquiries annually, but they only made a few hundred instruments each year.

The artists didn’t want to mass-produce their handpans, so they did something novel: They required prospective customers to write hand-written letters. A chosen few were then invited to the PANArt workshop in Switzerland (they had to furnish their own travel expenses), where they bought their instruments in person. While there, buyers learned about the history and use of the Hang, as well as how to care for it.

Rohner and Schärer are reclusive. They avoid interviews and shun attention. Not everyone likes this attitude; some handpan players argue that they should be more transparent and take on apprentices.

“I feel they never wanted the celebrity that ultimately came to them,” said Cox. “Instead of embracing it, they chose to focus within so not to get distracted from their work. That's my take anyway.”

Rohner and Schärer have since stopped making the Hang and are now busy creating the Gubal, a new instrument that will be up for sale in the coming months.

As PANArt started garnering attention, and with demand so far exceeding supply, other companies started trying to replicate the instruments. Cox, a former steelpan maker, met his business partner at a local tool-building company. Jim Dusin, a contractor, came in to the shop for a meeting while Cox happened to be working on a steel drum. Dusin watched him hammer the steel into shape.

“He kept shaking his head,” remembers Cox. “When I stopped and asked him what he was thinking, he said ‘I can figure out a better way to do that.’ ” What was supposed to be a 15-minute meeting turned into a whole day. “We were both late for dinner that night.”

The two went on to invent the Halo, their version of PANArt’s Hang, and started their own company, Pantheon Steel, to produce them. They also coined the term “handpan” to describe the new instrument. (“Hang” specifically refers to the PANArt handpan.)

A dozen or so other companies have materialized since then, but the industry is not like others. In fact, it may be one of the strangest of its time: Companies practically push away customers, and “competitors” don’t really compete with one another.