Josephine Dow

Jocéan is a handpan, vocal and frame drum artist rooted on Orcas Island in the Salish Sea. The handpan's rich harmonics make a soundscape for her vocals, and she draws on the elemental forces of the watery island where she lives. She describes herself as a sound healer, vocalist, instrumentalist and composer. Her rhythmic sensibility blends Indian rhythmic theory with Middle Eastern frame drum concepts.

Music came early. Her mother played classical music for her every night before bed, and she learned violin, silver flute and tenor saxophone through her school years. She took up the violin at age 7 and has gone on to play over 10 instruments, including a variety of percussion. She is the niece of the percussionist Jamey Haddad. She began writing songs after returning from Iceland, when she bought a ukulele and recognized music as her calling. Her handpan path began in earnest in 2018, when she met her partner Burke Mulvany, who had an original Hang.

Her lyrics often arrive in deep meditative trances while she plays. Sometimes they come as mantras the audience can sing along with, and sometimes as wordless sound. She sees each performance as a ritual and ceremony of its own, and she stays open to improvised collaborations or audience participation. She is also synesthetic and can "see" music, and the handpan's tonefields help her map those shapes onto the instrument.

Jocéan teaches both frame drum and handpan, with a particular focus on helping women build confidence with the instrument. She believes the handpan is here at this time to aid the evolution of human consciousness towards wholeness.