Field recordings of ancient, traditional music in the Southeast Asia feature in this column. Northern Khmer Spirit Music in Thailand – Kantrum Dongman (Animist Records, 2022) covers the traditional music of "Northern Khmer" people in provinces like Surin, Buri Ram and Si Sa Ket that straddle the Thai-Cambodian border in Thailand's lower Northeast, while Exploring Gong Culture Of Southeast Asia: Massif And Archipelago (Sub Rosa, 2022) covers traditional gong music from 50 different ethnic groups in the Philippines, Borneo, Sulawesi, Vietnam's highlands and northeast Cambodia.
Kantrum Dongman is a set of field recordings made by Apichat Pakwan duo Olivier Schreuder and Angkanang Pimwankum in 2018 in Dongman village, Surin province. Schreuder says in the liner notes that there are over a million Northern Khmers in the area and the music they play was wiped out over the border in Cambodia during the dark genocidal years of the Khmer Rouge.
The music, kantrum boran, plays a key role in village life for celebrations and rituals, and even healing. Healing rituals are common in the Northeast and are called lam pi fah in Lao and arakk in Khmer. An arakk shaman performs pleng arakk (healing songs) to appease bad spirits and restore the sick person to health and happiness.
