
Sulh Ensemble’s artistic director, Jon Silpayamanant, plays a Thai Phin. The Phin is a long-necked lute from the Isan region (where Jon was born). Used mostly in Laotian/Isan folk and pop music, the instrument also became popular in a regional genre of psychedelic folk-rock in the Isan region.
The strings of the Phin are usually tuned E – A – E and fretted pentatonically.