KATU, OI IN LAOS

The KATU (katuic language) and OY (bahnaric language) ethnic groups are both belonging to the Mon khmer ethno linguistic family. The KATU are an estimated population of 22 000 people, spread over the eastern part of Sekong and Saravan provinces of Laos and on the other side of the boarder in Vietnam. The center of their traditional territory is on the eastern side of the Sekong river : Kalum, an area that we could not access because the police did not allowed us to witness the massive deforestation going on ! Regardless, Katu people recorded here always refer to Kalum as their place of origin.
The OI with an estimated 12 000 people live in Attapeu province, like the Katu and other ethnic minorities, the young people are rarely interested in maintaining their ancestral culture, laosization and thai tv are doing the rest , but here is real traditional OI music usually having 2 DOUR players, a small mouthorgan, , and a larger one,the latter missing on this recording cause it was broken.

1 to 6 recorded in the Katu villages of Donsa, tracks 7 to 12 in Tongvay, both villages east of Thateng in Sekong province, famous for their black magic.
in Donsa village NANG AWAT 35 years old woman ( tracks 1,2,5,6) and NANG MAY 28 (tracks 3, 4) both learned from older women from Kalum, those short songs with following stories :
a woman protecting her child alone against the tiger, the tiger eats her but not the child, the orphan girl who takes care of her smaller sisters, the story of 2 brothers, one is a soldier the other one is at home in the village, they share everything,and the basket maker who is not making good ones but everyone pity him and still use his baskets.

7 to 12 recorded in Tongvai village, a 70 years old woman sings in Katu and Paco languages about the lost of her husband, the war and poor life

tracks 13 to 19 recorded in Kokbountay village, sung in 2 different Katu dialects: the man sings in Hors and the woman in Yakeu, the instrument is a 3 stringed plucked small lute called TAPREU performed by a 60 years old man, additional sounds produced by hitting a spoon on an empty bottle.
13 epic song sung by a 40 years oldman
14 Kanmon, improvised welcoming song sung by NANG PIT 49 years old woman
15 song about the Vietnam war, escaping the bombs and the fights
16 Tapreu solo
17 song about the past, the war time
18 song about the hard life, living in the forest
19 song about unfullfilled love, the man loves a girl without being loved in return

20 to 23 OI duet recorded in Lanyao tay village in Attapeu province
VILAIPHON 60 years old man plays DOUR ( mouth organ of 6 bamboo tubes inserted in a gurd) and KEYSON 52 years old woman singer

KATU RECORDED BY LAURENT JEANNEAU and EMANUEL GSCHIEL in december 2012, january 2013 in Sekong province, Laos
OI RECORDED BY LAURENT JEANNEAU in january 2013 in Attapeu province, Laos