Cross-border music and a rock(et) festival ...
Post categories: Radio 3,Ìýworld music
| 10:49 UK Time, Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Radio 3 world music producer James Parkin recounts the latest travel trials of Radio 3's Music Planet recording team ...
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Ìý - the capital of - is an historic landmark in this lively town. In April 1975, as the ragged and terrifying army stormed into the city, expats, journalists, aid workers and a few Cambodians took refugeÌýin this elegant oasis. in his book River of Time describes the moment that Pol Pot's forces entered the compound and cleared it. The Cambodians were killed and foreigners were sent to the French Embassy. Khmer Rouge soldiers - many of themÌýchildren - looted what they could (even drinking the medical teams' serums), and then left.
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Today the hotel has been renovated, but doesn't have any of the sexy tropical appeal that Swain describes in the 70s. And it was in Le Royal that the Music Planet team were forced to hole up during the unrest in neighbouring .Ìý Our work in Cambodia done, we were due to fly to Bangkok, but a 4am call from the Ö÷²¥´óÐã in London advised us that there was a general state of emergency throughout the country. The British Embassy was closed and the centre of Bangkok had been evacuated.
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If the production of this part of Music Planet (in , Cambodia, Thailand and ) has a theme, it would be unforseen circumstances, changes of plan. From the very start, I should have seen the signs. Andy Kershaw couldn't get off the Isle of Man due to more volcanic dust. He missed his flight to Bangkok. When he did arrive, we headed to Laos. The festival we should have recorded wasn't happening, but a similar one in Thailand - just across the - was. In other words, we left Thailand to go to Laos, to get to Thailand. That meant long drives, more missed flights and eventually, an overland border crossing into Cambodia.
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But things have worked out. In Thailand we attended the , and witnessed a firework display of lunatic proportions. Ö÷²¥´óÐãmade rockets were launched stuffed with 125kg of gunpowder and reaching heights of 8km. They sound like fast jets taking off and look like intercontinental ballistic missiles: fun for all the family... We crossed the border into CambodiaÌý - a very kind man filled out the forms for us and another man (holding a baby and wearing a straw hat) opened the barrier; we then drove through some of the most heavily landmined territory in the world (I hasten to add that the road itself is safely passable). Even in 2010, this part of Cambodia is still a Khmer Rouge stronghold - the Cambodian government even take advantage of their guerrilla skills and knowledge of the land in the disputed border areas with the Thais. In Siem Reap it was a moving experience to record musicians, many of whom had lost limbs whilst tending their crops in mined fields. In Phnom Penh we met the one musician who survived Pol Pot's purge of artists, as well as a new young collective of musicians who rap over the lost rock music of the 60s and 70s.
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Listen out for the recordings in Music Planet in the autumn!
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