ស្រមោលស្នេហ៍ខ្ញុំ​ - រស់ សេរីសុទ្ធា - ចំរៀងជ្រើសរើសដោយ បូរ៉ា ដឺ ហ័ង្ក

មនិដា: បងបូរ៉ា ដឺ-ហ័ង្គ ដឹងទេថាអូនរែងព្រួយ ចង់ជួបតែបងមួយនៅក្នុងលោកា ។​ សូមឲ្យស្រមោលស្នែហ៍ សូមឲ្យមនោគតិស្នែហ៍ អូនក្លាយជាការពិត។ មិនរស់ បើរស់គ្មានបង ---

បូរ៉ា ដឺ ហ័ង្ក: ​ម្តេចក៏ដឹងថា មានតែអូនម្នាក់ទេ ដែលជាអ្នករែងព្រួយក្នុងពិភពស្នេហ៍នេះ​ --- (គ្រាន់តែអ្នកខ្លះ ដូចបងហេង-ស៊យ មិនរែងទេ តែអុំព្រួយ​)

ស្រមោលស្នេហ៍ខ្ញុំ​ - រស់ សេរីសុទ្ធា

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R26OelkQyc

សូមរស់ក្បែរទ្រូងបង បូរ៉ា-ដា-ហ័ង្គ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDpOa4GUryg

សម្រែក សេក កម្ម - Cry of the suffering parrot: Song by Ros Sereysothea dedicated to Pisith Pilika

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnkCd-qLeaA

Svay Muoy Mek (ស្វាយមួយមែក) - An original recording by Sin Sisamouth and Ros Sereysothea

Original cover of the record by famous artist Nheuk Dim

Click on the control below to listen to the song:

Right-click here to download the song in MP3

Interview of Greg Cahill film director of The Golden Voice [VIDEO]

Originally published at http://khmr.cn/greg-cahill

Khmerican interviews Greg Cahill, director of "The Golden Voice" and "Two Shadows," two films that explore past and present issues in the Cambodian-American community.

"The Golden Voice" tells the story of Cambodian rock icon Ros Sereysothea, who disappeared during the Khmer Rouge regime. See more about the movie at http://www.thegoldenvoicemovie.com.

"Two Shadows" follows a young Khmerican who travels to Cambodia to discover the truth about her family. For more, visit http://www.twoshadowsmovie.com.

For more on Khmerican culture, go to http://khmerican.com.

For more about interviewer Will Koenig, go to http://khmersalem.blogspot.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Ai2oUge4I

ស្រណោះផាត់ជាយ (ដួងច័ន្ទអើយ បងហេងស៊យក្បត់ខ្ញុំហើយ) ច្រៀងដោយ រស់សេរីសុទ្ធា

ចំរៀងជ្រើសរើសដោយ បូរ៉ា-da-Hunk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIuQfYTFhRc

ចំរៀងលាគ្នា - កុំទៅណាឆ្ងាយពីអូន ណាបងហេងស៊យ!

ចំរៀងជ្រើសរើសដោយកម្លោះសង្ហារ បូរ៉ា-da-Hunk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8OFWIbtcrc

ឃ្វាលចិត្តប្រុស ​ហេងស៑យ ​​​ដូចឃ្វាលពពក - ចំរៀងជ្រើសរើសដោយបូរ៉ា-ដា-ហឹង

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMc02vU1GZQ

Friday Khmer Oldies Selection by Bora-the-Hunk

រង់ចាំថ្ងៃស្អែក (Sin Sisamouth - Waiting for tomorrow)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILsZASu1Kcc

រស់ សេរីសុទ្ធា - អូនចាំបងជានិច្ច (Ros Sereisothea - I will wait for you forever)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgAKiNgYj-A

ស៊ិនស៊ីសាមុត - សែនអភ័ព្វ (Sin Sisamouth - So unfortunate)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9LdWNh-7jo

Ros Sereysothea in the army (1972) - A seclection by Bora-the-Hunk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI3ZWySJeHU

2 Khmer Oldies songs by Ms. Ros Sereysothea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMJmDN6Mf9c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttOdKOq6G48

Relatives of Sin Sisamouth and Ros Sereysothea

Sin Sisamouth's wife:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjuKHXRthPI

Sin Chanchhaya, Sin Sisamouth's son:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_iFdbI4fmA

Ros Serey Sothea's sisters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW-x8XUL-s4

Khmer rock revival seeks new audience

Chhom Nimol fronts the LA-based Khmer rock band Dengue Fever

Tuesday, 28 July 2009
By Sarah Cuddon
BBC News

Decades after Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge silenced the sound of Westernised music in Cambodia, the little-known 60s genre "Khmer rock" is finding new fans.

Khmer rock is the sound of the West meeting the East in the 1960s - a mixture of US surf guitar music, early rock and doo-wop mixed with Cambodian traditional instruments.

At the time, the music was virtually unknown outside Asia but its followers in the West are now burgeoning.

Music writer Nik Cohn is a new fan who stumbled across the sound by chance.

He said: "One night I was watching (the film) City of Ghosts, and there's an amazing moment when Matt Dillon jumps on a motorbike and rides through Phnom Penh and this incredible music comes on. An unbelievable voice.

"(I'd) not heard anything that good since Ronnie and Ronettes... and then I began to think about it musically."

Today, the sounds of the old Phnom Penh are being revived in the West by the Los Angeles-based band Dengue Fever, which is fronted by a Cambodian singer, Chhom Nimol, the daughter of musicians who played with the original Khmer rockers.

The band's guitarist Zac Holtzman loves the sound and stories of Phnom Penh's music scene.

"It was modern city, with lots of musicians. By day they played traditional stuff and by night they'd rock out.

"In general the Khmer culture is reserved, but this is the closest to stepping out and going crazy. We can really have fun here."

The country's former controversial ruler, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, was a big influence on the sound.

Despite presiding over an often corrupt and repressive regime, he was passionate and liberal about the arts, and encouraged the traditional court musicians to experiment with Western styles.

But influences also came directly from the US - as the American military presence in Vietnam increased, the American Forces Radio Network also became more well-known.

Flying studios operated by the US Navy spread the sound of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and country music to Cambodia.

Phnom Penh's young musicians did not necessarily know who Jimi Hendrix, the Doors or the Beach Boys actually were, but they loved the sound and they started to imitate it.

"They just took the sound and re-channelled it through instruments equivalent to guitars… a primitive drum kit, and they certainly had bass guitar," Nik Cohn said.

The Khmer rock musicians did not have elaborate studios, and most of the songs were recorded live - often in one take - with any keyboards or guitars they could find, and incorporated traditional instruments.

For a decade, this experimental Khmer rock music transformed the nightlife of the capital, Phnom Penh.

But in 1975 the fanatically anti-Western Khmer Rouge marched in, led by Pol Pot, and the vibrant rock and roll scene was silenced.

Within four years, the Khmer Rouge killed an estimated two million Cambodians in the notorious killing fields, including many of the Khmer musicians.

Him Sophy was one of those sent to a labour camp.

"Ninety percent of the famous singers were killed. I saw the prisoners they took," he said.

Jon Swain, who was the Sunday Times war correspondent in South Vietnam and Cambodia at the time, said: "Educated people, musicians, people with glasses… a lot were taken to the killing fields… so the great singers disappeared."

All the local heroes the scene had produced - like Sin Sisamouth, who became known as "the King of Khmer music" - were wiped out, killed by the Khmer Rouge.

Cambodian musician and composer Sophy Him was a young music student in Phnom Penh and remembered him well.

"Sin Sisamouth would play (royal) court music, then rock music… improvisation from traditional and rock."

Guitarist Zac Holtzman said Sin Sisamouth was a songwriter who he initially thought "was like the Elvis of Cambodia", but then he found his lyrics were more like the "Bob Dylan of Cambodia".

"When you know that every one them was wiped out by the Khmer Rouge, many in hideous ways, it deepens the experience of listening to it" - Nik Cohn, music writer

No one quite knows what happened to the famous diva of the time, Ros Sereysothea, but it is believe she also died under Pol Pot.

Like almost all the Khmer rock artists, Ros Sereysothea came from a poor farming family.

She moved to Phnom Penh, where was heard singing by Prince Sihanouk, who later honoured her as "The Golden Voice of the Royal Capital".

It was her voice that Nik Cohn first heard on the soundtrack for film City Of Ghosts, and he said there was always "something tragic about her".

The music was wild and anarchic, but the lyrics often told a different story of teenage angst, death, betrayal and sorrow.

The translation to Ros Sereysothea's funky rock song "Have You Seen My Love" is: "I drink until I get drunk, but I can't seem to get drunk. The sky is all black, love has wings to fly."

It is this strange mix that appeals to fans like Nik Cohn. "It's the sound of innocence, teenagers and innocence, symbolising everything that was lost - and when you know that every one them was wiped out by the Khmer Rouge, many in hideous ways, it deepens the experience of listening to it."

Khmer Rock is adored in Cambodia. It survived on bootlegged cassette tapes and vintage vinyl kept hidden during the Communist years at enormous risk to the owners.

"The name of Sin Sisamouth is still there… after Khmer Rouge was overthrown, his songs came back on the radio.

"I remember hearing them again and they are still going on now," Jon Swain said.

And the old songs are winning new fans through reissues and compilations, a presence on the internet, and the new recordings by Dengue Fever.

Khmer Rock and the Killing Fields presented by Robin Denselow, is to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4, Tuesday, 28 July, at 1330 BST.

The sad song of Sinn Sisamouth

December 05, 2008
By D. Allan Kerr
the_culling@hotmail.com
Portsmouth Herald News (New Hampshire, USA)

Here we are again, celebrating the season of peace and thanksgiving, counting our blessings and spreading joy to the world. It’s a time to reflect on – well, hell, you know how it goes by now.

This is that time of year when people tell us how lucky we are to live in the greatest, most freedom-loving country in the history of mankind. It’s when we’re encouraged to remember those less fortunate than us – the poor, the oppressed, the fearful and the damned. So in that spirit, here we go again:

I currently work with some fine outstanding American citizens who happen to be of Cambodian origin. The other day they brought in a CD of Cambodian music, mostly from previous decades. It was pretty catchy stuff, more modern than I had expected but also with what sounded like more traditional native influences. I was struck by the stylings of one guy in particular. He would croon a heart-ripping ballad in one number and then deliver a rousing rocker in the next; as warm and familiar as your grandfather’s sweater one moment and then as fresh as last week’s Top 40.

This man was the most famous singer of their old country, my co-workers said. Was he still around, I asked. No, they said – he had passed away. Then a bit later they elaborated – he had actually been exterminated by the Khmer Rouge back in the 1970s.

In fact, they said, the famous singer had been brought in by leaders of the Khmer Rouge and asked to compose a song celebrating their ascendancy. When he finished the song and then performed it, he was promptly executed.

In my homegrown American naivete I was kind of stunned by this. I asked one of my younger colleagues what artist in the United States had a comparable status. Elvis Presley, he said. I think I blinked and did a kind of double-take.

“So if our government had executed Elvis, that would have had the same kind of impact here as when this guy was killed in Cambodia?” I asked.

“That’s right.”

“Wow.”

The artist in question was Sinn Sisamouth. I of course had never heard of him, but in Cambodian culture he is indeed considered a giant. And as we continued listening to the CD, my co-workers pointed out that several of the other singers we heard had also been murdered by the Khmer Rouge. One of them, a female artist named Ros Sereysothear, performed many duets with Sinn.

Knowing this totally changed the listening experience for me. The more melancholic songs were suddenly swathed in tragedy, while the rollicking uptempo tunes took on an epic poignancy. It was almost unsettling, listening to the music of these doomed artists who at the time had no way of knowing what was to befall them. In essence, they were singing their own death song.

Sure, we have our Kurt Cobains and Janis Joplins and Jimi Hendrixes, but these foreign superstars were the first I knew of who had died BECAUSE of the music they created. Our tragic artist-heroes tend to fall victim to their own excesses.

I’ve since researched Sinn Sisamouth a bit. I learned that as a singer and song-writer he helped usher in a whole new modern culture for his country, developing an innovative style that combined rock-n-roll with the more traditional classics of his heritage. He wrote more than a thousand songs over his career and is perhaps most beloved for his odes to the ecstasies and agonies of love. Classic hits like “Champa Battambong” have become part of Cambodia’s heritage. But to this day there is no clear evidence as to how his life came to an end.

During the dark and bloody days of the Khmer Rouge, vanishings were not uncommon and the infamous “Killing Fields” were put to frequent use. Led by the notorious madman Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge essentially sought to develop a society of farmers and laborers, and so proceeded to eliminate urban dwellers, intellectuals, capitalists, artists and so on. The regime is believed to have wiped out anywhere from 800,000 to 2 million people in the 1970s, or roughly one-fifth of the country’s population.

Just about every atrocity you can imagine has been attributed to Pol Pot’s followers, including the use of children to implement torture and executions. Celebrities made easy targets. While the scenario described to me of Sinn Sisamouth’s death has been widely circulated, there are other reports that he was in fact tortured, and that his famous tongue was cut out.

Another story suggests that it was he who asked to sing a song to his executioners, and performed a musical plea for justice. But his audience, consisting of ignorant barbaric rustics, was unmoved, and shot him anyway. By all accounts it seems he had too sweet a soul to survive this brutal era. Sinn was only 40 years old when he is believed to have died.

His old singing partner Ros Sereysothear also vanished during the regime. One rumor maintains that Pol Pot forced her to marry one of his assistants, who routinely abused her. Others imply that she died in a labor camp or was executed.

Yeah, I know – not exactly a storyin keeping with the holiday spirit. But Americans taking their liberty for granted is a well-worn cliché by now, and all too often it takes stories like these to sort of snap us into reality. We live in a country where singers, poets, artists, writers and moose hunters are free to express their thoughts and feelings through their talents and creativity without fear of imprisonment or torture. Think about how lucky we are.

The simple shock we experience when hearing tragic tales like the fate of Sinn Sisamouth – and the songs haunting us afterward in a foreign tongue -- remind us how alien such circumstances may be for most of us.

LOSER OF THE WEEK: Then on the other extreme we have Stephon Marbury, the $22 million-dollar point guard for the New York Knickerbockers. Here’s a man who has made an absolute fortune playing a game, and when asked to suit up to help out his teammates, he refused.

There’s a reason Marbury has never won an NBA championship. There’s a reason Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Marbury’s ex-teammate Kevin Garnett have. Chances are, Marbury will never figure that out in time to actually call himself a winner.

D. Allan Kerr has never understood how despots like Pol Pot can finish out their lives without ever having to face the consequences of their horrific actions. Kerr may be reached at the_culling@hotmail.com.

CULTURE-CAMBODIA: Pre-War Khmer Music Making a Comback

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
Boomp3.com

Right click here to download the MP3 file

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)

LA band, filmmakers revive nearly forgotten Cambodian rock

April 12, 2007
The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES: The jubilant sound of Cambodian rock, nearly destroyed in the 1970s by the Khmer Rouge, is making a comeback.

Several American musicians and filmmakers who were captivated by the music have formed a band, gone on tour and made movies to preserve the once vibrant genre that was formed during the Vietnam War era when Cambodian artists blended the sounds of American pop heard on U.S. military radios with their traditional music.

"It's pretty incredible that somehow Cambodian musicians got rock 'n' roll right during the late 1960s and '70s," said documentary maker John Pirozzi, whose film "Don't Think I've Forgotten," is about the emergence of Cambodian rock and the fate of some of its iconic stars.

The music is a mix of surf and psychedelic rock combined with the distinctive melodies and soaring vocal styles of Cambodian folk music.

"Outside of the United States and England, there was no good rock 'n' roll elsewhere in the world, but they managed to make it their own and make it into something unique," Pirozzi said.

When the Khmer Rouge ruled from 1975-79, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from starvation, overwork, medical neglect and execution in the notorious "killing fields."

Artists and intellectuals were deemed enemies of the classless society the brutal regime was trying to create. Cultural and performing arts institutions were closed, instruments and records burned. Singers who could not flee were killed or forced to sing propaganda songs. Some surviving musicians said they went to great lengths to hide their identities in labor camps.

The country's most popular female singer Ros Sereysothea died mysteriously during those years, and even today no one knows for sure what happened to her. Her life is the subject of the short film "The Golden Voice."

"I got enthralled by the music, it was like nothing I've ever heard before," said the film's director Greg Cahill. "It sounds like '60s American rock but with a totally different spin on it."

Cahill said he learned about Sereysothea by interviewing many "killing fields" survivors who resettled in Long Beach, home to the country's largest Cambodian community. He wrote his script in English, had it translated to Khmer, hired a Cambodian cast and shot the movie in the Los Angeles area.

The movie premiered in Long Beach in October and was warmly received by a mostly Cambodian audience.

"A lot of people said they were happy we made the film because it's telling this very important story that's been buried," he said.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles band Dengue Fever is introducing Cambodian rock to an eclectic audience as it tours college campuses and hipster venues, and performs in Cambodian communities across the country and abroad.

The band was formed in 2001 by Ethan Holtzman, who discovered the music while traveling across Cambodia. He returned home and recruited his brother Zac, three other Americans and a Cambodian-born singer to help him cover some of the infectious pop and rock tunes he heard on his trip.

"I traveled all over Southeast Asia, but Cambodia really stood out from the other countries because of its history and what its people had been through," Holtzman said. "I came back wanting to pay respect to the fallen musicians and their body of work."

The band's most memorable show took place in late 2005 in a shantytown outside Phnom Penh where the musicians collaborated with a group of students. The trip is the subject of another documentary by Pirozzi, called "Sleepwalking Through the Mekong."

"It was an emotional day," recalled bassist Senon Williams. "These kids knew all the old songs, and we were able to jam together even when we didn't speak the same language."

Back home, they're attracting a new generation of Cambodians raised in the United States.

At a recent show in Santa Monica, a large group of Cambodian college students crowded near the stage, shouting for the band to play some of its favorite tunes. They cheered when guitarist Zac Holtzman sang in Khmer, then spontaneously formed a traditional Cambodian dance circle and curled their hands in fanlike motion.

Thary Duong, a 21-year-old UCLA student, said she grew up in California listening to alternative rock and recently discovered Dengue Fever.

"I see this as being something completely American because it's so hip," she said, "but it's taking from the roots of Cambodia."

For further information about Dengue Fever: http://denguefevermusic.com

For further information about "The Golden Voice" movie:
http://www.thegoldenvoicemovie.com

LA band, filmmakers revive nearly forgotten Cambodian rock

The late actress Ros Sereysothea (Photo source: Wikipedia)

03/18/2007
By DAISY NGUYEN Associated Press Writer
News Fuze

LOS ANGELES- The jubilant sound of Cambodian rock, nearly destroyed in the 1970s by the Khmer Rouge, is making a comeback.

Several American musicians and filmmakers who were captivated by the music have formed a band, gone on tour and made movies to preserve the once vibrant genre that was formed during the Vietnam War era when Cambodian artists blended the sounds of American pop heard on U.S. military radios with their traditional music.

"It's pretty incredible that somehow Cambodian musicians got rock 'n' roll right during the late 1960s and '70s," said documentary maker John Pirozzi, whose film "Don't Think I've Forgotten," is about the emergence of Cambodian rock and the fate of some of its iconic stars.

The music is a mix of surf and psychedelic rock combined with the distinctive melodies and soaring vocal styles of Cambodian folk music.

"Outside of the United States and England, there was no good rock 'n' roll elsewhere in the world, but they managed to make it their own and make it into something unique," Pirozzi said.

When the Khmer Rouge ruled from 1975-79, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from starvation, overwork, medical neglect and execution in the notorious "killing fields."

Artists and intellectuals were deemed enemies of the classless society the brutal regime was trying to create. Cultural and performing arts institutions were closed, instruments and records burned. Singers who could not flee were killed or forced to sing propaganda songs. Some surviving musicians said they went to great lengths to hide their identities in labor camps.

The country's most popular female singer Ros Sereysothea died mysteriously during those years, and even today no one knows for sure what happened to her. Her life is the subject of the short film "The Golden Voice."

"I got enthralled by the music, it was like nothing I've ever heard before," said the film's director Greg Cahill. "It sounds like '60s American rock but with a totally different spin on it."

Cahill said he learned about Sereysothea by interviewing many "killing fields" survivors who resettled in Long Beach, home to the country's largest Cambodian community. He wrote his script in English, had it translated to Khmer, hired a Cambodian cast and shot the movie in the Los Angeles area.

The movie premiered in Long Beach in October and was warmly received by a mostly Cambodian audience.

"A lot of people said they were happy we made the film because it's telling this very important story that's been buried," he said.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles band Dengue Fever is introducing Cambodian rock to an eclectic audience as it tours college campuses and hipster venues, and performs in Cambodian communities across the country and abroad.

The band was formed in 2001 by Ethan Holtzman, who discovered the music while traveling across Cambodia. He returned home and recruited his brother Zac, three other Americans and a Cambodian-born singer to help him cover some of the infectious pop and rock tunes he heard on his trip.

"I traveled all over Southeast Asia, but Cambodia really stood out from the other countries because of its history and what its people had been through," Holtzman said. "I came back wanting to pay respect to the fallen musicians and their body of work."

Their first, self-titled album is a compilation of some of the biggest hits from the era while their second album contains original songs, written in English and translated to Khmer, that fuse Cambodian rock with jazz and even a little hip-hop. Holtzman said one song pays tribute to the pop singer Huoy Meas, who was said to be forced to sing in the nude before she was executed.

In late 2005, the sextet toured Cambodia for the first time and became overnight stars after a television station repeatedly broadcast their performance to the nation.

At concerts, they said the faces of older Cambodians lit up when they played old songs, reminding them of innocent days before the Khmer Rouge took power.

Their most memorable show took place in a shantytown outside Phnom Penh, when they collaborated with a group of local students. The trip is the subject of another documentary by Pirozzi, called "Sleepwalking Through the Mekong."

"It was an emotional day," recalled bassist Senon Williams. "These kids knew all the old songs, and we were able to jam together even when we didn't speak the same language."

Back home, they're attracting a new generation of Cambodians raised in the United States.

At a recent show in Santa Monica, a large group of Cambodian college students crowded near the stage, shouting for the band to play some of their favorite tunes. They cheered when guitarist Zac Holtzman sang in Khmer, then spontaneously formed a traditional Cambodian dance circle and curled their hands in fanlike motion.

Thary Duong, a 21-year-old UCLA student, said she grew up in California listening to alternative rock and recently discovered Dengue Fever.

"I see this as being something completely American because it's so hip, but it's taking from the roots of Cambodia," she said.

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On the Net:

— Band: http://denguefevermusic.com
— Documentary: http://cambodianrock.com
— Short film: http://www.thegoldenvoicemovie.com