The 'Golden voice' of Ros Sereysothea is undergoing a revival. (Credit:Wikipedia)Click below to listen to Vissamakal Khnong Bakthamvey (Youth Vacation) by Ros Sereysothea
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By Andrew Nette - Newsmekong*
PHNOM PENH, Aug 17 (IPS) - Grainy black and white newsreel footage of B-52 bombing raids and fierce fighting are the images most frequently associated with Cambodia in the sixties and early seventies -- not rock and roll, hot pants and wild dancing.
But when the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, emptying the cities and systematically eradicating the so-called old culture as corrupt and decadent, they almost completely destroyed what was probably, for its time, the most unique and vibrant rock and roll scene in South-east Asia.
"Cambodia definitely had one of the most advanced music scenes in Asia at the time," agrees Greg Cahill, who is currently seeking finance to turn his 30-minute film on the most famous of the era’s female singers, Ros Sereysothea, ‘The Golden Voice’, into a fully-fledged biopic.
"It is amazing that a lot of it survived at all," says Cahill, who was recently in Phnom Penh to scout for locations. "The Khmer Rouge destroyed everything related to the music scene they could get their hands on, including trashing all the recording studios and destroying all the musical recordings they could find."
All the major singers, many of them still household names today such as Sin Sisamouth and Sereysothea, were killed.
Not only has the music survived. Its legacy of thousands of songs ranging over musical styles as diverse as psychodelia and Latin, is garnering increasing international attention.
‘The Golden Voice’ is one of two films on Cambodia’s pre-war music scene in the works. The other, Los Angeles-based cinematographer John Pirozzi’s ‘Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten’, a history of the scene, is currently in production.
Songs from the period featured on the soundtrack of the 2002 crime thriller shot in Cambodia, ‘City of Ghosts’.
It has also been given significant exposure by the six-piece Los Angeles-based band ‘Dengue Fever’, whose lead singer, Cambodian-born Chhom Nimol, covers many of the classic hits from the period.
While the music’s domestic popularity is mostly restricted to older Khmers, the pre-war artists are being sampled and mixed in hip hop and rap music tracks, slowly exposing it to a new, younger audience.
"When I first heard this music, I did not think much of it," says Sok ‘Cream’ Visal. "I thought it was just the style back then."
"The more I listened, the more I realised just how different and edgy this music was," says Visal, art director at a local advertising company who, for the past few years, has been experimenting with remixing pre-war music with more modern sounds. "Thailand, Vietnam and Laos did not have this scene. It was unique to Cambodia."
Two factors are credited with kickstarting Cambodia’s pre-war music industry.
The first was the patronage of then King Norodom Sihanouk. As part of his post-independence nation-building efforts, Sihanouk encouraged royal court musicians to experiment with new styles.
This influenced people like Sisamouth, whose career started as a ballad singer in the royal court and by the end of the sixties had become the ‘King of Cambodian rock and roll’.
In the sixties, Sihanouk began importing Western music into Cambodia. Local record labels sprung up and by the seventies, these were being supported by a well-developed network of distributors and clubs.
The other major influence was the R and B, country and rock music that was blared into Cambodia by the U.S. Armed Forces radio in Vietnam.
"This exposed Cambodian musicians to Jimi Hendrix, Phil Spector, the Doors," says Visal. "Meanwhile, from Europe we got Latin styles such as cha cha, rumba and flamenco.’
These sounds, as well as influences as diverse as do-wop, psychodelic and Motown, can clearly be heard in the pre-war music, often mixed with traditional Cambodian instruments.
From the royal court, Sisamouth became a popular radio singer in the late fifties, before branching into film and TV. Although he did many rock and Latin tunes, he is better known for his more silky crooner numbers and is often compared to singers like Nat King Cole.
Although Sisamouth was the bigger star, it is Sereysothea who had the greatest mystique and exercises the strongest contemporary interest.
Born into poverty in a small village in Battambang province, Sereysothea spent her teens performing with her family in a traditional peasant band touring Cambodia’s rural backwaters of the north-west.
Her reputation slowly grew and she moved to Phnom Penh and started performing at local clubs. By the late sixties she was a major star, producing a number of albums and starring in films. It was during this time hat she started performing with Sisamouth.
She was married for a time to another singer, Suos Mat, who was incredibly jealous of her success and is said to have beaten her regularly. Sereysothea was subsequently involved with a paratrooper in the Lon Nol army who was killed fighting the Khmer Rouge.
When the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh on Apr. 17, 1975, Sereysothea joined the rest of the city’s residents in being marched at gunpoint to the countryside.
Sereysothea and Sisamouth in particular were very creative, says Cahill, who has extensively researched the era.
Over the seven to eight years leading to the Khmer Rouge takeover, they wrote, sang and produced about 2,000 songs, often at a rate of one or two songs a day. They also recorded a wide array of covers in English and Khmer.
Under the Khmer Rouge, even the slightest western influence such as speaking a second language, having long hair or wearing flares was enough to invite a death sentence.
Sisamouth was reportedly shot. Sereysothea successfully hid her identity for some time until she was finally discovered and made to perform revolutionary songs celebrating the regime.
According to Cahill’s research, Sereysothea was in a camp in central Cambodia when her real identity was discovered. She was forced to marry one of Pol Pot’s commanders who eventually had her murdered.
The music of the sixties and early seventies is currently available on CD and cassette in markets throughout Phnom Penh. That it survived the destruction of Cambodian culture wrought by the Khmer Rouge is due to Cambodians who took it with them when they fled the country.
"In the Khmer community in Long Beach, California you cannot go down the street without hearing this music," says Cahill.
Visal remembers his parents taking music with them when they fled Cambodia to France. "Music was a part of their everyday lives," he recalls. "For them it was about memories of Cambodia in the good times."
A compilation CD of Khmer pre-war music was released in the U.S. in 1999. Called ‘Cambodian Rocks’, it was put together from cassettes bought by a U.S. tourist during a trip to Cambodia. The CD, which contained no information about the singers or names of their songs, became a cult favourite among college students.
However, it was not until the music was released as part of the soundtrack for ‘City of Ghosts’, written and directed by U.S. actor Matt Dillon, that it started to get serious international exposure.
Visal’s own path back to Cambodia’s pre-war music involved a long detour through the rap and hip that he listened to in the housing projects of suburban Paris.
"I remember seeing the tapes of artists like Sisamouth and Sereysothea for sale in the Phnom Penh in the nineties," says Visal, who returned to Cambodia in 1993. "I did not really pay any attention to the music until I bought a computer to learn design. I stumbled on music editing software and started messing around with sampling Khmer music."
"Soon, I was started going out and combing the markets, listening to every song I could find from this period and I started to mix and sample them," Visal continues. "The first reaction I had from people was shock. They thought it was blasphemy and did not understand why I wanted to do it."
Visal recently started up his own label, Klapyahandz, promoting young Khmer hip hop and rap bands and is keen to release a CD of his mixed songs. "I started remixing old music for fun but now it has become a real mission, trying to remind people now just how creative people were back then."
"In the next five years we are going to see a real explosion of the arts in Cambodia, particularly in music," predicts Visal. "I hope the pre-war songs will be part of that."
(*This story was written for the Imaging Our Mekong Programme coordinated by IPS Asia-Pacific)
But when the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, emptying the cities and systematically eradicating the so-called old culture as corrupt and decadent, they almost completely destroyed what was probably, for its time, the most unique and vibrant rock and roll scene in South-east Asia.
"Cambodia definitely had one of the most advanced music scenes in Asia at the time," agrees Greg Cahill, who is currently seeking finance to turn his 30-minute film on the most famous of the era’s female singers, Ros Sereysothea, ‘The Golden Voice’, into a fully-fledged biopic.
"It is amazing that a lot of it survived at all," says Cahill, who was recently in Phnom Penh to scout for locations. "The Khmer Rouge destroyed everything related to the music scene they could get their hands on, including trashing all the recording studios and destroying all the musical recordings they could find."
All the major singers, many of them still household names today such as Sin Sisamouth and Sereysothea, were killed.
Not only has the music survived. Its legacy of thousands of songs ranging over musical styles as diverse as psychodelia and Latin, is garnering increasing international attention.
‘The Golden Voice’ is one of two films on Cambodia’s pre-war music scene in the works. The other, Los Angeles-based cinematographer John Pirozzi’s ‘Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten’, a history of the scene, is currently in production.
Songs from the period featured on the soundtrack of the 2002 crime thriller shot in Cambodia, ‘City of Ghosts’.
It has also been given significant exposure by the six-piece Los Angeles-based band ‘Dengue Fever’, whose lead singer, Cambodian-born Chhom Nimol, covers many of the classic hits from the period.
While the music’s domestic popularity is mostly restricted to older Khmers, the pre-war artists are being sampled and mixed in hip hop and rap music tracks, slowly exposing it to a new, younger audience.
"When I first heard this music, I did not think much of it," says Sok ‘Cream’ Visal. "I thought it was just the style back then."
"The more I listened, the more I realised just how different and edgy this music was," says Visal, art director at a local advertising company who, for the past few years, has been experimenting with remixing pre-war music with more modern sounds. "Thailand, Vietnam and Laos did not have this scene. It was unique to Cambodia."
Two factors are credited with kickstarting Cambodia’s pre-war music industry.
The first was the patronage of then King Norodom Sihanouk. As part of his post-independence nation-building efforts, Sihanouk encouraged royal court musicians to experiment with new styles.
This influenced people like Sisamouth, whose career started as a ballad singer in the royal court and by the end of the sixties had become the ‘King of Cambodian rock and roll’.
In the sixties, Sihanouk began importing Western music into Cambodia. Local record labels sprung up and by the seventies, these were being supported by a well-developed network of distributors and clubs.
The other major influence was the R and B, country and rock music that was blared into Cambodia by the U.S. Armed Forces radio in Vietnam.
"This exposed Cambodian musicians to Jimi Hendrix, Phil Spector, the Doors," says Visal. "Meanwhile, from Europe we got Latin styles such as cha cha, rumba and flamenco.’
These sounds, as well as influences as diverse as do-wop, psychodelic and Motown, can clearly be heard in the pre-war music, often mixed with traditional Cambodian instruments.
From the royal court, Sisamouth became a popular radio singer in the late fifties, before branching into film and TV. Although he did many rock and Latin tunes, he is better known for his more silky crooner numbers and is often compared to singers like Nat King Cole.
Although Sisamouth was the bigger star, it is Sereysothea who had the greatest mystique and exercises the strongest contemporary interest.
Born into poverty in a small village in Battambang province, Sereysothea spent her teens performing with her family in a traditional peasant band touring Cambodia’s rural backwaters of the north-west.
Her reputation slowly grew and she moved to Phnom Penh and started performing at local clubs. By the late sixties she was a major star, producing a number of albums and starring in films. It was during this time hat she started performing with Sisamouth.
She was married for a time to another singer, Suos Mat, who was incredibly jealous of her success and is said to have beaten her regularly. Sereysothea was subsequently involved with a paratrooper in the Lon Nol army who was killed fighting the Khmer Rouge.
When the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh on Apr. 17, 1975, Sereysothea joined the rest of the city’s residents in being marched at gunpoint to the countryside.
Sereysothea and Sisamouth in particular were very creative, says Cahill, who has extensively researched the era.
Over the seven to eight years leading to the Khmer Rouge takeover, they wrote, sang and produced about 2,000 songs, often at a rate of one or two songs a day. They also recorded a wide array of covers in English and Khmer.
Under the Khmer Rouge, even the slightest western influence such as speaking a second language, having long hair or wearing flares was enough to invite a death sentence.
Sisamouth was reportedly shot. Sereysothea successfully hid her identity for some time until she was finally discovered and made to perform revolutionary songs celebrating the regime.
According to Cahill’s research, Sereysothea was in a camp in central Cambodia when her real identity was discovered. She was forced to marry one of Pol Pot’s commanders who eventually had her murdered.
The music of the sixties and early seventies is currently available on CD and cassette in markets throughout Phnom Penh. That it survived the destruction of Cambodian culture wrought by the Khmer Rouge is due to Cambodians who took it with them when they fled the country.
"In the Khmer community in Long Beach, California you cannot go down the street without hearing this music," says Cahill.
Visal remembers his parents taking music with them when they fled Cambodia to France. "Music was a part of their everyday lives," he recalls. "For them it was about memories of Cambodia in the good times."
A compilation CD of Khmer pre-war music was released in the U.S. in 1999. Called ‘Cambodian Rocks’, it was put together from cassettes bought by a U.S. tourist during a trip to Cambodia. The CD, which contained no information about the singers or names of their songs, became a cult favourite among college students.
However, it was not until the music was released as part of the soundtrack for ‘City of Ghosts’, written and directed by U.S. actor Matt Dillon, that it started to get serious international exposure.
Visal’s own path back to Cambodia’s pre-war music involved a long detour through the rap and hip that he listened to in the housing projects of suburban Paris.
"I remember seeing the tapes of artists like Sisamouth and Sereysothea for sale in the Phnom Penh in the nineties," says Visal, who returned to Cambodia in 1993. "I did not really pay any attention to the music until I bought a computer to learn design. I stumbled on music editing software and started messing around with sampling Khmer music."
"Soon, I was started going out and combing the markets, listening to every song I could find from this period and I started to mix and sample them," Visal continues. "The first reaction I had from people was shock. They thought it was blasphemy and did not understand why I wanted to do it."
Visal recently started up his own label, Klapyahandz, promoting young Khmer hip hop and rap bands and is keen to release a CD of his mixed songs. "I started remixing old music for fun but now it has become a real mission, trying to remind people now just how creative people were back then."
"In the next five years we are going to see a real explosion of the arts in Cambodia, particularly in music," predicts Visal. "I hope the pre-war songs will be part of that."
(*This story was written for the Imaging Our Mekong Programme coordinated by IPS Asia-Pacific)
25 comments:
Piros nas!!Thank you Roserey sothea!!!
i love the dance music of sin sisamouth, ros sereysothea, pen ron, etc; they all have beautiful khmer singer voices, especially, miss ros sereysothea's. i hope there will be new khmer singers to match that of their beautiful voices. their legacy to the cambodian music industry will forever be there. may they rest peacefully.
sisamouth is the king, ros serey sothea is the queen,,,I will take off all norodom sihanouk, sihakmini, and monique off the wall and put master sisamouth and sereysothea on the wall!
We had so many song writers :
Mer Bun, Voy Ho,Peov Sipho,Yang Chheang aka Samneang Rithy,Oum Dara,
Sin Sisamuth,Svay Sar,Sam Sokhorn
and more......
I was a young khmer,18 yrs old, who was growing up in year 70.
The best Khmer-Music which I can say
it was the glorious time of it.
The country was full of war,bombe,killing & fighting against the Viet Aggressor.They were so many
Patriot songs that was wroten by Yang Chheang aka Samneang Rithy.His voice wasn't that great but hi luric & tune was the best among the Khmer song writers.
I was also a fan of Bee Gee,even I couldn't understand one English Word..but Music & Song is the International Language that everyone can understand the soul of Music.
In year 2000 I was in the middle of the BEE GEE concert,one night only..
I felt so amazed to listen & watch them,The Gibb brothers.
I wish to see those Khmer-Concert
but they all had gone ,even the last concert that I've seen it.
Tang Kdom-Pi,an archictect,was one of the best Khmer-Singer who sung
the Westerner songs.
Will it be YESTERDAY ONCE MORE ?
There were also some reports that said Ros Sareysothea died in a hospital in Phnom Penh weeks before just the invasion. She almost survived if she could have held on longer. Her sister also believes this is where she was before she died. These are the most common believed theories of what happened to Ros Sareysothea. I regret we will never see the excalibur of talent such as in the past. Hopefully we can also do a movie or documentary on the other group of talented individuals who are more ignored than these talented singers: the Khmer actors. Maybe one day, these actor's stories will be told to the people of Cambodia also.
In Cambodia in the 60's & 70's, if you don't know Miss Ros Sereysothea, you are from another country and as young as myself or only 12 ears old in 1975, I will always remember her, admire her and love her forever. There is no way that I will forget our Queen of music. Ms. Sothea will be with me until the end of time.
Don't forget Huy Meas guys, just hear her voice when she speaks it makes me weak in the knees and fall in love without second thought. She got the most beautiful speaking voice ever.....a perfect female voice.
Don't forget Huy Meas guys, just hear her voice when she speaks it makes me weak in the knees and fall in love without second thought. She got the most beautiful speaking voice ever.....a perfect female voice.
Our Khmer People should have 1 Day Off For Celebration Of King Of Music From the 60. Janaury 7, is for my A$$$$$.
True and sometimes, it was hard to choose between the two women. Well, while Ms. Sothea took the music stage in the 7o's, Ms. Huy Meas took the talking soap opera's Queen on the radio and she too was undeniable powerful- attractive and charming voice of a woman. An Opera's voice on the radio with her? No way!and what was the name of the young man who usually played her opposit? Anyone remember?
Looking for someone who can truely promote our language? There they are! Samouth Sothea Huy Meas Pen Ron etc.. These people make it sounds so beautiful and so unforgettable.
Everyday, we too ought to admire our own tongues who can speak the same language and produce just about the same sound as they do:) Shouldn't we? Dawn Right! Why not?????
Ordinary Khmers
from 10:12a.m should read" an opera's voice on the radio without her? ".Thank you
King Sihanouk was absolutely the one who brought Western music and some cultures into Cambodia. The King loves life and a good life for all. Althought many went unnoticed and only Cambodian elite at that time were the people who can absorbed the best of the best. Thanks to these very popular artists, the cultures of fun and powerful such as Rock & Roll grew and hit a lot of hearts of our Cambodian people. It was magnificent!Love it!
10:12 AM
Meas KorK ?
Wow, pre-75 Khmer music now appreciated worldwide! Samouth & Sothea wouldn't dream that such a day would come! Personally i think the quality of the music they put out during 1970-75 wasn't that good and frankly there was a lot of rubbish too (repetitive, lyrics often trite not poetry, sound quality clearly poor compared to the mid 60's etc..). But hey i'm not complaining if the Barangs like it too! And why forget Im Song Seurm the guy who died quite young in 1972, the original singer who brought us the one and only Chnam Mun? Often copied but never beaten. And why forget Meas Hok Seng or Mol Kamach, and Sereyvuth (not to be confused with Norodom Sereyvuth)and Chhun Vanna, and Keo montha and Chhuon Malay - these are our national geniuses and heroes!
Also it would be great if Samouth and Sothea's family are shown support too.
An Opera's voice on the radio with her? No way!and what was the name of the young man who usually played her opposit? Anyone remember?
10:12 AM
The guy was Lauk Nhiek Sokhom.The vilain guy's vice was Lauk Khun Pol & Khun Kachan.
Meas KorK ?
1:04 PM
Meas Kork had the best voice in
Krom Lkhorn-Cheat Khmer of University of Fine Arts.His co-female was Ms Mam Saram.
And also Lauk Meas Sam El was one of the best Krom Lkorn Cheat Khmer.
A handsome Actor, who was also a Movie Star,stared with Nary Hem in a films of Marchell Camus, " L'oiseau de Paradis"(The Heaven's Bird ).The films was so beautiful,well made by telling the Khmer's life.
Maybe I guess we can buy this movie
in DVD at Phsa Roussie,Phnom Penh.
I like to add Meas Samorn(?) to the mixed. Outside of Sin Sisamuth, he's probably the most imitated character in Cambodian music history. Every song he sings make me smile. I wonder who wrote those songs!
Meas Samorn was Cool & Funny Singer.
He was in the band of Yothear Phirom.
I guess maybe Lauk Voy Ho who was one of the best song writer.
i hope everyone in the art performing industry can imitate these undeniably talented khmer artists of the past. also, i hope cambodia will have a khmer version of the american idol search for talented people in the art performing industry in order to revive our interrupted art scene. also, it is a great idea to commemorate all of our talented people in the music industry of the past as well as the present. it is good for anyone with the ability to research into these talented khmer past performers and make a document about them so future generation of khmer artist can learn from them in terms of techniques, skills, etc... god bless cambodia.
how about create a khmer music museum in battambang and stung treng, etc... respectively to commemorate the birth places of these great artists so future generation can come visit and learn or read about the lives of these great, talented performers.
Sounds fabulouso 2:48am!!! Someone needs to start this soon and thanks 6:21p.m, Lauk Nhiek Sokhom is the man who played the opposit voice of Neang Huy Meas in Khmer talking Soap opera. Again thank you!
Hey what about Lok Sang Sarun? and Neang Cheak Mach? How come none of us ever able reproduce their performances on tape or CD? Do you have any idea how angelic and sweet and gentle or powerful their voices are in Lkoun Basak Khmer??? Don't even think that we forget, we just cann't seem to find them anywhere and big BIG thanks to MAYURA PRODUCTION, YOU SURE FIT THE NEW CROWN OF KHMER 'S VOICE!
And most of us don't even know the names of the leading man and woman's voice of their production Mayura ). That is bad! bad! bad!
Lok Sin Sisamuth & Neang Ros Serey Sothea's families are very very poor and seems to be completely ignores by our government. Mrs. Sin Sisamuth couldn't possibly be able to support her husband nationally thru public television or thru her own production nor did his son Chanchaya, but we are sure they do and every minute of their lives. The same goes with Neang Ros Sereysothea's sister and the rest of her family. Luckily some of us are able to hear and see some of their stories thru small public video tapes. Those stories that we heard, are worth in gold. They may very well be one day become the true treasure to the National Museum. Let's hope so that it will happen soon and God bless these artists' families!
Ordinary Khmers
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