Atzarin Bandonion - Reshaping Traditional Bandoneon

The Atzarin bandonion arises from the desire to create a bellows instrument that has all the advantages of a conventional bandoneon ie. compact size, highly manageable weight, supreme comfort and balance, in combination with a better, easier to learn arrangement of notes that is still bisonoric and so retains one of the most characteristic features of the kind of bandoneon that is most commonly used to play tango music. This is particularly important as bisonority itself can be considered a big advantage.

The design concept of the Atzarin bandonion blends the unique, bisonoric Atzarin layout of musical notes and a new, specially designed, ergonomic arrangement of buttons with a new palm rail and hand strap setup, allowing the thumb to be used in playing technique.

The Atzarin bandonion solves the main problems of conventional bandoneon ie. the notoriously difficult, apparently chaotic, layout of notes and a not very ergonomic position of the hand when playing, whilst keeping its bisonoric character and consequent advantages.

It also overcomes the drawbacks of B o C system bandonions ie. cramped, complicated fingering system that involves "finger crossing", no alternative chord shapes and loss of stability and control resulting from the wrist pressing against the instrument rather than the hand.

The Atzarin bandonion, with its unique button arcs of streamlined, curved rows of closely spaced buttons sloping towards the thumb, successfully deals with an issue that is, at the same time, one of the unique advantages of traditional bandoneon and one the biggest failings of B and C system bandonions - very broadly voiced chords.

The resulting instrument is a powerful, bisonoric bandonion that is sleek and distinctive in appearance and yet retains the main advantages and characteristics of the traditional bandoneon in an easier to learn and easier to play format, that has several unique advantages itself.