The Music of Cambodia, Volume One: 9 Gong Gamelan

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 22, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Celestial Harmonies
• ASIN: B0000007XC
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #445,561 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #16 in Music > World Music > Far East & Asia > Cambodia
  • #82 in Music > Indie Music > World Music > Far East & Asia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Recording, September 4, 2000

By 

"yingsat" (Warren, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Music of Cambodia, Volume One: 9 Gong Gamelan (Audio CD)

This is a very nice CD. Tracks 1 thru 6 are pinpeat music, which is the Cambodian xylophone orchestra. The pinpeat music on this recording, however, has a more homestyle feeling than the national/royal pinpeat of the capital city, Phnom Penh. Nonetheless, it's just as festive as all pinpeat music. Tracks 7 thru 9 are Khmer funeral music, utilizing the 9-gong instrument in the CD's title. These tracks are kinda lengthy and, personally, make me sleepy. Track 10 is a sralai(Khmer oboe/shawm) solo. Tracks 11 thru 14 are music of the Samreh minority group from northwestern Cambodia. These are folksongs sometimes accompanied by drums, fiddles, and shawms(tracks 11 and 14), but the other tracks(12 and 13) are just solo voices. The songs are soulful and happy, retaining a tribal style. Overall, this is a good CD, but a little unbalanced, considering that this isn't one whole CD, but one third of a 3 CD collection...I enjoy this CD, but I would reccomend that others buy the whole box set which contains this CD.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ancient as Angkor itself!!!, August 23, 2000

By 

Kean Chhay Chang (Vic, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Music of Cambodia, Volume One: 9 Gong Gamelan (Audio CD)

The Music of Cambodia "9 Gong Gamelan" Vol. 1 gives a rare insight into some of Cambodia's rare orchestras and the more common pin-peat orchestra that was believed to have been around during the Angkorean period. The pin-peat orchestra varies from region to region in Cambodia. This orchestra was associated with court dance, shadow theatre, masked theatre and temple functions or ceremonies. It's compositions are hazy and very mystical especially the version of the pin-peat orchestra recorded here in the album. To some extent it sounds like the gamelan orchestra of Indonesia because of the gong-chimes that give it the metallic and hazy shimmer. The typical pin-peat orchestra wound comprise of two wooden xylophones, one being a lead (roneat ek) and the other with a low pitch (roneat thung), a metallophone (roneat dek), two sets of gong-chimes (khong-vong thom and khong-vong toch) that are mounted on rattan frames, two large bass drums (skor thom), barrel drum mounted on a stand (samphor), an oboe (sralay) and a few other instruments that are also featured. The rare taam ming orchestra that has never been heard outside of Seam Reap Province was just one of the album's achievements because, it's very rare to hear music outside of Cambodia. The taam ming orchestra would be performed during or at funerals. It's very different from the pin-peat orchestra because, of the ghostly and yet slow, somber compositions. Giving it that kind of sad, lonely, sorrowful and mournful atmosphere. The instrumentation in the orchestra includes, one large bass drum (skor thom), a larger gong (khong), oboe (sralay) and a nine gong instrument itself. Two tracks are accompanied by a male vocal who sings mournful songs making adding a very haunting theme to the whole composition. There is a solo oboe (sralay) performing a very beautiful composition. The last orchestra is the trott orchestra. This orchestra is unlike the two previous orchestras because, they don't have any gong instruments. The music is very tribal and brings it's that closeness to nature and atmopshere. Instead of gongs, they have a folk-fiddle (tro), folk-shawm (pey-or), drums (skors), rattles and shakers making it very exotic accompanied by male vocals, and there is also a track with an a cappella sung by a trio of male singers. This album is very mysterious like Angkor itself. All the musicians who took part in making this album are from rural background, yet their skills are very high. Recording music from Angkor is a great achievement itself. For those who want something rare and usual from what Cambodia has to offer. Then this album should be the one. Having an opportunity to listen or hear music that is beautifully recorded and mastered is very rare especially from Cambodia which had about three decades ago suffered during the war.