Alexander Mercks: The Ordinary Epic and the Flow of Creativity

In this episode of Handpan Voices, I’m joined by Alexander Mercks — handpan player, musician, teacher and creator of Handpan Pal.Our conversation centres around Alex’s new album, The Ordinary Epic, a deeply personal and cinematic project shaped with handpan, piano, strings, voice, electronics and percussion.Alex talks openly about the process of creating the album, how it differs from his earlier improvised work, and why this music feels like a more honest reflection of what he wants to create now. We talk about composition, improvisation, sadness, emotional connection, and the long process of shaping simple musical ideas into finished pieces.We also explore Handpan Pal, Alex’s play-along learning platform designed to help handpan players move beyond patterns, understand chords more clearly, and find more flow in their playing.This is a conversation about music, creativity, feeling stuck, finding your own voice, and the strange journey from improvising alone with a handpan to building something much bigger.#Handpan #HandpanVoices #AlexanderMercksFind Alexander Mercks:The Ordinary Epic:https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/alexandermercks/the-ordinary-epicHandpan Pal:https://www.handpanpal.com/Alexander’s website:https://alexander-mercks.com/YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@UC4P-5N6FH52w54_W8s8Nhsg Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/alexander.mercks/Handpan Voices is a podcast sharing conversations with players, makers, teachers and organisers from across the handpan world.Hosted by Phil Begnett.