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Khse Diew artist performs a traditional song in the CLA studio. (Mathew Wakem/Phnom Penh Post)
Friday, 20 January 2012 Diana Montaño The Phnom Penh Post
Some of Cambodia’s most renowned musical masters will gather this year to create a recording of musical forms in danger of being lost, as part of the “Documentation of Three Khmer Musical Traditions” project spearheaded by the local NGO Cambodian Living Arts.
The project, funded by a grant from the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, will create audio-visual documentation of three traditional forms: Kantaoming, classical funeral music; classical wedding music; and Smote, a unique combination of poetry and chanting performed in Buddhist ceremonies, particularly funerals.
Cambodian Living Arts was founded in 1998 as the Cambodian Masters Performers Program with the mission of rescuing and reviving artistic traditions virtually wiped out during the Khmer Rouge era. The organisation has worked to bring together living masters of traditional Khmer arts to create recordings and performances, and teach younger artists.
Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer Phnom Penh Wednesday, 02 June 2010
A group of young Cambodian and foreign musicians have begun playing contemporary forms of Cambodian music. Krom Monster uses five traditional instruments combined with digital manipulation to create music that appeals to younger Cambodians.
The band, made up of five Cambodians and one Briton, is part of a trend in collaboration between modern and classic artists underway in Cambodia.
Krom Monster played live in Phnom Penh Monday night, following five weeks of rehearsal and sound mixing.
“Definitely the aim is to try and develop an audience’s awareness for contemporary forms of music,” said David Gunn, the director of the London-based arts organization Incidental and Krom Monster’s lead singer.
Gunn collected sounds from Khmer musical instruments and from the streets in Phnom Penh over the past four weeks and modulated them to mix with five traditional Khmer instruments including the kong tom, roneat ek, tro sor and khser deav.
Gunn, who also leads a participatory art project called ‘Neak Ta,” said the aim of producing the new form of contemporary Khmer music was to help local artists and musicians create their own form of music.
“Quite often people come to countries like Cambodia and try and teach how it's done in England or America, which for me is not a very interesting way to approach it,” he told VOA Khmer in an interview on Monday. “If you come here, you shouldn't just tell people what to do. So it’s more about trying to help the musicians find a uniquely Cambodian form of contemporary art and music.”
At present, traditional Khmer music forms lack creativity, while most of the modern ones are under public criticism for the fact that they follow or are copied from foreign music.
Pov Punisa, an 18-year-old music student from Cambodian Living Arts who plays the roneat ek, said that the new form of Khmer music does not require any rules.
“Our traditional music, like Pin Peat, has proper rules to follow, but with this form of music we just play based on our feeling,” she said.
Lun Sophaneth, a 20-year-old music student at Fine Arts University in Phnom Penh, said that only with such innovation can Cambodian music move forward.
“The world gets interested in contemporary forms of music, so this kind of music can help Cambodian musicians compete with others,” he said.
Song Seng, project coordinator for Cambodian Living Arts, said the creation of the new form of Khmer music is a strategy for promoting Khmer music and at the same time attracting Cambodian youth to their own art and music.
“’This is important to re-popularize Khmer art and music,” he said in an interview on Monday. “If we only promote the traditional forms, it is not effective because Khmer youth are interested in something new and different,” he said.
Prum Putvisal, a university student in Phnom Penh, said after seeing the live performance of the Krom Monster that he liked the new form, which was strange and appealing.
“Not many people listen to our traditional music nowadays,” he said. “So, when it is mixed with the computer modulation, it is good.”
Samraing Komsan, secretary of state for Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, said the ministry supports using the traditional instruments with foreign music elements to form new styles of music.
“We need such kind of innovations to modernize our music,” he said in a phone interview.
The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, in Washington, hosted Cambodian classical musician Chum Ngek last week, to represent both Cambodian tradition and the state of Maryland.
At the center, he played three solos on his "roneat aik," a kind of treble xylophone, and led the classical ensemble.
Chum Ngek is a recipient of the Bess Lomax Hawes Fellowship award for service to his community, and is a master of Cambodian music, an accomplished performer and revered teacher.
The Kennedy Center is featuring arts across America, presenting artists from 51 states and many disciplines and backgrounds, including music, dance and theater.
The Kennedy Center invited Chum Ngek "to work with a number of masters in different traditional realms of performances," said Garth Ross, director of performing arts. "He represents Maryland and Cambodian cultures."
"Our goal is to invite him to make sure that the Cambodian culture is represented, and we know him to be the foremost teacher and performer," Ross said.
Chum Ngek was thrilled about performing at the Kennedy Center, where he has been invited to play many times in the past.
"I am glad that our Cambodian art is recognized," he said, adding that he was grateful to other Cambodian performers who had paved the way, as well as the support of the Cambodian-American Heritage and Buddhist Society groups.
Chum Ngek has released a CD of Pin Peat songs titled "Hom Rong."
Classical "pin peat" is associated with the Angkorian empire, and contemporary repertoires date back to the mid-19th Century, when then king Ang Duon revived Khmer culture, including court music and dance.
