It looks suspiciously like a spaceship, sounds just as unearthly and is "as rare as hen's teeth" to find in Australia.
Meet the modern instrument, the Hang.
Retired farmer Andrew Jackman had never heard of it before encountering a street performer playing one in Paris, four years ago.
"I just stood there mesmerised," he said.
"I was so taken with the music I was hearing. It was purely accidental."
Now he plays the instrument every night. His house in the small South Australian town of Penola is home to one of only a handful in the country.
The Hang — pronounced 'hung' — was developed in Switzerland in 2000, using similar physical principles to the steel pan.
Its name means 'hand' in Bernese German.
While Mr Jackman admitted it looked "like a Sputnik", he said he loved the instrument for the range of beautiful, subtly different sounds it could produce.
"It's an instrument that carries beautifully without any need for electrification," he said.
"Friends have quite often smirked and called it the double-sided wok.
"But once they hear it they tend to be remarkably surprised by the music that it does make."
'Sputnik' instrument a rare find
Although the instruments can be a common sight in parts of Europe, they have been slower to catch on in Australia.
Mr Jackman put that down partly to a lack of exposure.
"I wouldn't have even known they exist if I hadn't heard this one in Paris," he said.
"It would be the last thing on this earth I'd be thinking of."
Tracking one down to buy was his biggest challenge.
He and his wife contacted music stores around Australia for a year, to no avail, before stumbling on a Hang for sale in Canada by chance.
"I'd more or less given up on it," he said.
"They are as rare as hen's teeth, particularly down in this area.
"I would say between Melbourne and Adelaide, this may actually be it."
Orchestral dreams follow fun
Mr Jackman is hesitant to call himself a musician, playing more for fun and therapeutic benefits.
"I can't really play music to save my life but it just looked like one of those instruments that you could enjoy, without the tag of being a musician," he said.
"I get quite entranced with it, making up different tunes.
"My wife could attest to the fact that I can sit here and play it for two hours without stopping — it sucks you right in."
He is self-taught, guided by internet videos as well his own musical style.
"People have all sorts of ways and means of playing it," he said.
"It's whatever you're comfortable with.
"I probably play in less of a fast, percussive style and more of a note-by-note classical style, which suits me."
But his dreams for the instrument are slowly getting bigger than his living room.
"There are bands that are incorporating it into their musicality but by and large they still tend to be a solo instrument," he said.
"My aim in life is to compose a piece for an orchestra.
"There are all sorts of possibilities that might transpire with it."
