Agean

Company type	Private
Industry	Musical Instruments
Founded	2002
Headquarters	Istanbul
Number of locations	2
Area served	Europe US Japan Brazil Colombia Russia [1]
Key people	Halil Kırmızıgül Samet Kırmızıgül
Products	Cymbals Percussion Instruments
Parent	Kırmızıgül Music Company
Website	www.ageancymbals.com

Agean Cymbals is a manufacturer of cymbals and other percussion instruments of the Western Classical, Folk, and Turkish traditions. Their factory is located in Edirne, while its main office is situated in Istanbul. They state a commitment to preserving hand-crafted techniques and a tradition of cymbal making that dates back to the Ottoman Empire, as part of their manufacturing ethos.^[2]

History

Agean Cymbals was founded in 2002 by Behnan Gocmez.^[3] In 2007, the brand was bought by the Kırmızıgül family, who were already manufacturing traditional Turkish and other ethnic percussion instruments—including darbukas, doumbeks, and bongos—under the Kırmızıgül Company.

Until late 2007, the Agean Cymbals factory was located in Istanbul—a city with a long history of cymbal production^[4]—but the company decided to move production operations to Uzunköprü, Edirne,^[1] since the traditional cymbal manufacturing process was becoming difficult to maintain in the city center.

Agean cymbals have presented their products at Musikmesse Frankfurt in 2007-2009 and 2017-2018. They were also set to present in 2020, but the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[5] In 2017, they presented a new kind of low-volume cymbal—a type often used for practice or in smaller venues where louder cymbals are impractical^[6][7]—using traditional B20 bronze alloy—the first company to use the material for low-volume cymbals.^[8][9]

In 2019, they expanded operations to produce other kinds of percussion instruments in addition to their line of cymbals.

Production Methodology and Philosophy

The company's identity is based on the idea of preserving traditional cymbal-making techniques. They state, “We choose to manufacture our cymbals in the time honored fashion—100% hand-crafted”.^[10] Agean traces its pursuit of hand-crafted cymbals back to the bell-making tradition in the Ottoman Empire.^[11]

Their cymbals are hand-hammered^[12][13] and (in the low-volume cymbals) hand-drilled,^[6] forgoing the use of auto-hammering that is common within modern cymbal production.^[14] The cymbals are then cooked in a process by which the metal cymbal “puck” is heated to high temperature using coal and wood ovens dug into the ground (known as ground casting), rather than modern gas or electric ones. Traditional bronze alloys, such as B20 and B25, are used as their cymbal material, also foregoing more modern nickel-silver alloys commonly used in entry-level cymbals.^[3]