We have been meeting every Sunday since August to work with the musicians. In total 25 sessions and already half of these are gone. Only 13 left until the D-DAY ! Sometimes it is at home and it is sooooo small that we can't move!
We are lucky it is not raining like for the October 2009 concert, where we all had our feet in 20 cm of water because the rain water did not drain quickly enough ! that was fun. On other times, we have been lucky to be provided with some spaces in hotels. In fact, it is difficult for all the artists to find a free and large space to work in Phnom Penh.
The nice thing for the concert@angkor is that we mix the traditional ensembles (Mohori, Pinpeat) with the semi-classical band....
the Chinese instruments. For the Chinese music, we are working with Roland and master Liao who are from the Simphony Music School in Boeng Keng Kang.
We will have jazz stylings, sacred music (smot), modern music (master composer Ung Chinary). It is so interesting [...]
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Ah! in addition to music, I told you that our family is a bit crazy about food. So last week, we visited the Khmer Dessert Festival at Koh Pich. That is the first time that it is organized. There were lots of sellers but only a few who prepared the dessert in front of us. This was great. I liked the Kralan Thma Kre, which is sticky rice with coconut mik that we cook in the bamboo trunks.
I knew all the desserts that were presented, and I think that not all the people who where selling were those who cooked them, because sometimes I feel I am at Psar Olympic. I also saw how they cooked the Slek Chak cake which is black sticky rice with coconut, palm sugar wrapped in palm leaves. Mmm! that was good. I learnt that this is a specialty from Koh Kong.
The big surprise for me was to learn that these two types of cakes (nom Klot and I don't know the name of the second) are the specialties of Kompong Cham.
Of course my homeworks! It takes me the Saturday morning and I continue throughout the week end when I have a spare hour. But mostly, I have music lessons and on Sundays, we play altogether:
There is the Bosbaband, Khru Theara and the mohori orchestra, khru Soy Saret and the pinpeat musicians, khru Rithiravuth and the western instrument musicians.
Now we practice at home, so it is very small and we are moving out the tables, the chairs, the books every Sunday.
We need space to welcome all the musicians and especially the instruments like the khong. That's really big, and there are two of these !
Here I learn "smot", a sacred music, accompanied by the Khmer flute.
I am so lucky to have everybody helping read out the notes and sing in tune: khru Theara, Khru Sithul, Narem and khru "smot"! There is a lot of "eun, eun" and I need to practice.
Khru Rithiravuth conducts the classical instruments for "Ave Maria" and corrects me.
It seems like it is a lot of work but [...]
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It was a while since we went to Kpg Som, Sihanoukville. We felt back then that the popular beaches weren't well taken care of, the road seemed always too crowded with trailers so our trips to the seaside would always stop at Kep. This time we went down to Kpg Som to see how things have changed.
We went straight to the beaches and gosh ! most of the beaches I knew have disappeared ! They were closed for developement of resorts. We finally found a great beach far away, deserted place, nobody except the fishermen. Panhlauv was first to run to the sea.
We visited Ream National Park to find the abandoned decor of the movie "Barrage contre le Pacifique" directed by uncle Rithy.
We took the boat to one of the islands not too far and I have never seen such a beautiful beach and water. All shades of blue and green, the water so clear.
We found these "crab l'hermite" which are crabs using other people's house !
On the road to Ream, we saw farmers busy replanting [...]
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Look at the stunning photos of the show Winds of Angkor in the gallery section of my website! Every song has a striking image animation on the background and lights design. We really had a fabulous night at Chaktomuk!!
On this photo from left to right: choregrapher Maritza, David, Jean Baptiste, Jessica, (me), Cham Nou (who is currently on Beeline advertising!), Roberto and Amara. Not on this photo but so part of the success are Sarah of course, but also the children from Seametrey school, dancer Belle, Bryan who designed the stunning video/images, Wolfgang for the audio and Melissa for the video. This was not the whole show but only highlights that give the team and Sarah more energy to find the funding to get the whole show in Angkor Wat.
Look at the photos and let's hope Sarah will be back soon with the cast for a full show!
