Richie Hawtin and Andy Rigby-Jones have announced PLAYdifferently, a partnership with the Audiotonix group that aims to bring innovative instruments to the DJ and electronic music market.

‘Our aim is to create instruments which DJs and electronic musicians can play; magnifying the creative impulse that drives our most inspired performances,’ says Hawtin. ‘This company is not about one performance style – or my style – this is for all artists who strive to unlock and expand their own innate talent.’

After 25 years at Allen & Heath as part of the Xone DJ division, Rigby-Jones left the company in 2014 to partner with Hawtin on the project, which is supported by the audio engineering, manufacturing and international distribution that Audiotonix group already exercises with brands including A&H and DiGiCo.

Two years’ endeavour has seen the pair developing and testing their first prototype of an instrument that they feel is missing from the professional segment of the market. Assessed at various leading worldwide events including Enter.Ibiza, Glastonbury Festival and the BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix in Los Angeles, the first prototype has already seen a number of iterations and is nearing completion.

‘The past two years have been a whirlwind of activity working with Richie on this exciting new project, but we both realised that to get our creation out to a wider audience we should partner with a major manufacturer, and who better than my old employer Allen & Heath,’ Rigby-Jones says. ‘A&H is now part of the Audiotonix group and as such provides unrivalled manufacturing, marketing and technical expertise in the UK.’

PLAYdifferently will shortly launch its first product, promising ‘a new level of uncompromising quality and intuitive functionality combined with hand-crafted British design’.

‘Richie and Andy have played key roles in making Xone the successful DJ brand it is today, so we’re excited to join forces with them again on this different direction of play,’ says Allen & Heath MD, Glenn Rogers.