Ha-Shem

“These extraordinary, beautifully crafted three-necked guitars  of bold original design and wonderful detailing are in themselves compelling enough to attract the eye and heighten expectation and curiosity, but when the masterful hand of Charismatic Maestro Antonio, sweeping with breathtaking skill over their astounding complexities, gives them plangent voice of such authority, poetry and spirituality, our satisfaction and delight is complete and we must salute the mind that created such a Song:

Unique, but at the same time having deep and reverential connections to all the music of the Earth! “

Douglas Rogers

HEARING BEYOND

“The Ha Shem doesn’t sound like a guitar, even though it is two 11 string guitars together; it is not a harp but its more like a harp than a guitar!  The unique sound of the Ha Shem together with the use of the  bow creates  yet another dimension to the overall sound which is a completely new departure in the evolution of  sound, harmonies + composition – this is the classical guitar of the 21st Century!”

Esteban Antonio

I believe that there is more to music than composition ...

I believe that there is more to sound than has been discovered at this present time…

Our ears cannot hear all this sound and cannot always tune into these different frequencies.

Our hearing has become numbed by the constant noise and the ‘white noise’ of technology that surrounds us everywhere.  The great leaps man has made in technology and understanding of digital sound has de-sensitised our hearing.

We think we understand the language of music;   We think we are listening;  but we focus more on what we see rather than what we hear.

We don’t look beyond that vision to discover the ‘hearing beyond’

My starting point in these fast moving times, living in an exciting, multicultural society from where emerges a constant, new creative language and cultural evolution, was that maybe, it was time to begin again.

I wanted to create an instrument that has not evolved from a particular ‘culture’ or type of music, as for example the guitars evolution into flamenco, but an instrument that transcends cultures and in so doing gives birth to a completely new sound.

The Ha-Shem was designed by Esteban. There are two models of the Ha-Shem. Built by two different and renowned English guitar makers. The acoustic model which is pictured in the photographs was built by Stephen Hill. There is now also a futuristic, electric model which Esteban is playing in the film on this website and YouTube - that was built by Christopher Wood.

“I knew this would involve new playing techniques + a whole new set of learning in changing the fret board from a conventional guitar to an instrument that could accommodate having two guitars tuned differently in my hands ... and  then with the addition of the bass section, I decided to create a 5 string bass section not 4 –I then added the bass harp section which, being  a violinist, I wanted to also be  able to play that section with a bow;  I added a curved floating bridge to enable that and then the journey began to find out if my design was feasible and also whether it would be possible to hold and play such an instrument”