CD by SUBLIME FREQUENCIES USA 2007
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Ethnic Minority Music of Southern Laos
by Various Artists


This is a collection of landmark recordings by Laurent Jenneau, documenting music created by the Harak and various Brao ethnic groups in Southern Laos. This is the second release in a series of spectacular field recordings from some of the more remote ethnic minority communities in Southeast Asia. On this release, you can hear the true historic roots of Molam music (now a venerable popular music style in Laos and Thailand) played on the khaen along with vocal styles from this region. Also featured here are gong ensembles, various stringed instruments, cymbals, drums, and sung poetry all captured live on location with the ambient sounds of the surrounding villages. These recordings were made in Xekong, Champasak, and Attapeu provinces and because much of this music is unknown, this is probably the first time recordings have ever been released of indigenous music from these remote areas of Southern Laos

.ETHNIC MINORITY MUSIC OF SOUTHERN LAOS 
1  Molam, a cappella song performed by a man from the Harak (Alak) ethnic group, the song is about all ethnic groups developing the nation together. Mo village, Lamam district, Xekong province.
2  Khen le Molam, played by 2 men of the Harak (Alak) ethnic group ,using a mouth organ (khen) and one man singing about encouraging villagers to have solidarity in order to strengthen their ethnic group. Pak Thon village, Lamam district, Xekong province.
3  Khen, a mouth organ played by one ethnic Harak (Alak) man. Pak Thon village, Lamam district, Xekong province.
4  Gaw gawng jing pe play, played by men from the Brao ethnic group, using a set of 3 different sized nippled gongs (gawng), 3 cymbals (char), and one drum (hageur). Touay/ Phaosamphan village, Pathoumphone district, Champasak province.
5 Gaw ja galpeu, played by 3 men from the Brao Hamong ethnic group, using a set of 3 different sized nippled gongs (gawng). 2 men are standing, hitting a gong in front of them, and another is crouching and playing. This song is played for animist buffalo sacrifices. Vongsamphan village, Phouvong district, Attapeu province.
6  Thalong tha Ka-nying, played by 2 men from the Brao Ka-nying ethnic group, using a pair of same size flat gongs (tha), the musicians sit at opposite sides of the hung gongs, and each hits them with 2 long sticks. Nam Souan (Dak Joor) village, Phouvong district, Attapeu province
7  Reum bang, played by one man from the Brao Ka-nying ethnic group, using a one string bowed instrument (draw). Eetoum village, Phouvong district, Attapeu province.
8  Ding boo, played by 2 women from the Brao Ka-nying ethnic group, using one long bamboo section (ding boo). One woman hits her palm against the opening at the end of one section while another woman claps her hands at the other end in a cupped fashion. Nam Souan (Dak Joor) village, Phouvong district, Attapeu province.
9 Jing riang Me Lun, played by Ya Bounma, from the Brao Ka-nying ethnic group, using a 10 string instrument, made out of a bamboo section attached to a gourd. In this case the gourd is placed on a flat gong giving the jing riang a more metallic sound. Both hands pluck the instrument. This song is about the Brao Lun sub group. Eetoum village, Phouvong district, Attapeu province.
10  Gaw mat, played by one man from the Brao Kavet ethnic group, Ya Bounyeng, the 5 stringed bamboo section (gawng ding) is made to replicate the sound of a set of 5 gongs (gawng cheung play) Phou Hom village, Phouvong district, Attapeu province.
11  Jing riang, played by a man from the Brao Kavet ethnic group, Ya Dol, using a 10 stringed instrument, plucked with both hands (jing riang). Some Brao Kavet now play this instrument, but it is believed to have originated with Tampuan, Kreung and Jarai people n northeast Cambodia. Phou Hom village, Phouvong district, Attapeu province. 12  Npo it npo it janeel goor, poetry by a woman from the Brao Kavet ethnic group, Ya On, this poetry is recited by young women for their boyfriends. Vong Vilay Neua village, Phouvong district, Attapeu province.
13  Npo it npo it a we mawn siang grai jeu leuay, sung by an ethnic Brao Kavet woman, Nang Heuayt. It is a song about a young woman calling her lover who has just returned. Phou Hom village, Phouvong district, Attapeu province.
14  Gaw joor nyet, played by 10 people from the Brao ethnic group. Using a set of 3 nippled gongs (gawng), 3 flat gongs (jing), 3 sets of cymbals (char), and one drum (hageur), this song is played at various animist ceremonies. Touay/ Phaosamphan village, Pathoumphone district, Champasak province.
15  3 nipple gongs + 5 jing ( flat gongs ) performed by 8 BRAO LAVE men of Phonsaat village in Champasak province
16  Jeu phawn peng gawng ploung ken, played by 4 people from the Heuny (Nya Heun) ethnic group using one small nippled gong (gawng) and one mouth organ (khen) made of 10 bamboo tubes, 2 men alternatively sing. This improvised song is about the traditional customs of the Heuny people. Oupasa village, Paksong district, Champasak province.
17  Boyt tawng, played by 2 ethnic Nkriang (Nye) men using a flat gong (pahat) and one man singing. This song is played when there is conflict and the music is needed to solve it. Phaosamphan village, Pathoumphone district, Champasak province.

Between 2003 and 2005, I was based in Ratanakiri province of northeast Cambodia, recording the ethnic minorities by myself (in 2006 SF has released the cd called ‘Ethnic Minority Music of Northeast Cambodia)’. In Ratanakiri, I met Ian G. Baird, a Canadian human geographer who has been working with the Brao ethnic group for over 10 years, and has lived in southern Laos since the early 1990s. Approximately half of the Brao live in Cambodia, with the other half living in southern Laos. Through Ian, the Global Association for People and the Environment (GAPE) initiated and financed a project in order to record and release 4 cds of great traditional music in the southern Laotian provinces of Champasak, Attapeu (2 cds) and Xekong (Xekong and Attapeu were heavily impacted by American bombing during the 2nd Indochina War (Vietnam War), and bombshells and rusty weapons can be found in almost every village). I had the chance to witness and record lots of unknown music, following the Canadian human geographer, who is fluent in the Lao and Brao languages. It would have taken me years if I had to do it by myself. The recording sessions followed each other at high speed, and we visited
many villages, where we were systematically invited to drink their local fermented rice alcohol contained in big ancient jars. We visited many villages near roads where ethnic minorities have been forced to relocate to from the mountains. The people have been forced to abandon their traditional territories for new artificial villages where they have had to adapt and give up swidden agriculture. I must say that the displacement of those populations has been a disaster, and that their new circumstances has contributed to the destruction of culture and ways of life. In comparison, traditional villages seem better off, living in a greener mountainous environment that does not suffer from lack of water, even in dry season. When in the mountains, the Brao were not affected as much by ‘Lao-ization’. In 2 months we completed our project and released local 4 cds. 500 copies were made of each, with a little booklet in Lao and English languages. 100 cassettes of each album were given to people from the concerned ethnic groups. The recordings presented here are a compilation of the content of the above-mentioned 4 albums, produced by Ian G. Baird and GAPE, based in Pakse, Laos.

Laos has an incredible ethnic diversity. With people from north to south belonging to various ethnic groups and linguistic families, most of the ethnic groups of southern Laos belong to the same Mon Khmer family, which stretches from Cambodia, through Vietnam, Laos, Burma (Myanmar), to the eastern part of India. This recording experience has allowed me to understand more precisely the 2 essential instrumental traditions that can be observe in this area of mainland Southeast Asia. Basically, the indigenous groups in the central plateau of Vietnam and the northeast Cambodian provinces of Mondolkiri and Ratanakiri, plus the southern Laotian provinces of Attapeu and Champasak, have developed ensembles of gongs as the prominent form of musical expression. Gongs seem to all come from Vietnamese foundries of the central plateau or the coast. The rest of Laos and northern Vietnam, Thailand and southern China have developed a musical culture of various mouth organs (khen in Lao), even if they know and use various gongs as supplemental instruments.

The different sub-groups of the Brao form the majority of ethnic minorities in Champasak and Attapeu in southern Laos and they are all involved in playing gongs, for animist purposes. The gongs are divided in 3 kinds, the nippled gong (gawng) have 3 to 9 different sizes, the flat gongs (jing) have 7-8 different sizes and can be played with the addition of cymbals (char), and a pair of thick flat gongs called tha or thai are also used by some of the northern Brao sub-groups, including the Umba, Kavet, Jree, Ka-nying and Hamong. They also use various bamboo instruments, like the percussive ‘ding boo’, or string instruments like the ‘jing riang’ with 10 metallic strings or the ‘gawng ding’ with 5 bamboo strings; in solo or to go along singing. Poetry is being chanted, recited, mostly by older members of those communities and are called ‘npo it npo it’. A great discovery was the music of Heuny (Nya Heun) people in Champasak province, where they combine a mouth organ with 8 bamboo tubes (khen) with a small gong and deep melancholic molam (local improvised style of singing). In Xekong province, northeast of Attapeu, is a mountain region that borders on Vietnam, where Harak (Alak) men sing ‘molam’ together with the mouth organ (khen). The Harak (Alak), the Nkriang (Nye), or the Brou (Ta Oi), along with various other ethnic groups, live in this area are use one thick flat gong, called a ‘pahat’ in Nkriang language, in a very different way than the Brao gong players do. The Nkriang hit a single gong, playing with the strong resonance of the metal. The Brao and the Jarai in Cambodia and Vietnam systematically form an ensemble where each player has a specific role that allows him or her to be part of the orchestra.