Sleepwalking Through the Mekong

I first became interested in Cambodian music thanks to the American based band, Dengue Fever. Their primary vocalist, Chhom Nimol, is from Cambodia and leads the band in their homage to classic Khmer songs, in their earlier albums at least. The majority of the covers were originally by Ros Sereysothea (left), Pan Ron (centre) and Sinn Sisamouth (right), all three of which met an untimely end.

As I prefer female vocalists, I haven't listened to many songs by Sisamouth but I am a big fan of Sereysothea and Ron. Personally, I find Ros Sereysothea conveys a lot more emotion in her music whereas Pan Ron brings more of an upbeat feel to Khmer songs. The 60s and early 70s were the prime of these musicians careers but when Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge came to power, it destroyed the Cambodian music scene. The death toll under Pol Pot's leadership is estimated at 1-2 million, with musicians, artists and scholars targeted in particular. According to one account, Ros Sereysothea was forced to leave Phnom Penh, like everyone else, to work in the countryside along with occasional breaks to sing pro-Khmer Rouge songs. Some sources say she was beaten to death, others that she died of malnutrition but what is for certain is that she did not survive. There is almost no evidence of what became of Pan Ron, except for one account stating that she was immediately blindfolded, driven to a pagoda and murdered. Again, with Sinn Sisamouth, there is no factual evidence indicating the details of his demise. Having learnt all of this, the music created by these artists carry a much sadder note for me and yet I still enjoy listening to them at the same time.

Let's dance while we are young,
The band is playing the Ago-Ago,
Lift our hands, feet and swing our heads
The audience praises that we dance so well
Happy, happy... happy, happy
We dance while we are young.