Newly formed duo HANA is the union of two Egyptian musicians that have individually been in the game for quite a while. Tech guru and PanSTARRS bassist Nader Abozied, and DJ/producer Hassan Abou Alam have combined their knowledge and years of experience in a project that is one of a kind in the Egypt. We decided to feature them in the second installment of "Show Me Your Gear" not only because of their on-point musical output, but because of their compact and quite complicated setup. You can always find Nader behind his Eurorack and Abou Alam rocking his electron trifecta.
EURORACK MODULAR SYNTHESIZER
Nader Abozied: My musical approach was never about the melodies and the harmonic content as much as about the sound design. Even when I’m making music with PanSTARRS, I use the pedals a lot. I love composition and rhythms, but I really love to dive into textures and sound design.
I first started making electronic music using Ableton, and then started switching to hardware (synths, drum machines and samplers) because of their hands-on approach. But I got stuck at some point, and wanted to link the equipment even more, like making the pitch sequence affect another parameter too. One way to do that through Ableton was to keep copying the automations, but that’s too much of a hassle. This is what got me into the Eurorack.
I was on a tour with KIK, went to Schneider’s and got an oscillator, an amplifier and an envelope. It took me long to figure it out and I’m still in the learning process. I still don’t have the perfect system. My system is made of two oscillators (one analog, and the other is an additive three voice digital oscillator), multiple percussion modules, a sampler, a looper, a reverb, two envelopes, a sequencer, and two LFOs. With the same system I can jam around many styles. From the slow trip-hop to techno to glitch and IDM.
ELEKTRON DIGITONE & ELECTRON DIGITAKT
Hassan Abou Alam: I mainly use three Elektron devices, the Digitakt, Digitone and Octatrack. The Digitone is an FM synthesizer, which I use for sounds like basses or leads. I use the Digitakt to trigger one shot samples.
ELEKTRON OCTATRACK MKII
Hassan Abou Alam: I record music from my Teenage Engineering OP-1 straight to the octatrack and resample everything and come up with a totally different sound. Its a great way to innovate and come up with completely different and unique sounds.
