Brao Gongs of Ratanakiri (Vinyl)

1.A1 5 gongs 04:15
2.A2 gongs + cengs +drum 05:34
3.A3 gongs + cengs +drum 02:55
4.A4 2 flat gongs 08:56
5.B1 funeral gongs 10:26
6.B2 2 flat gongs 03:54
7.B3 2 flat gongs 06:18

About this album
BRAO GONGS OF RATANAKIRI (Cambodia)

RATANAKIRI is the north-east province of Cambodia, at the border with Laos and Vietnam. Along with Mondolkiri (the province south of Ratanakiri), they used to be the territories of ethnic minorities or proto-Khmer. In colonial times the French did not succeed in controlling the area and after independence, the Khmer tried to control it, but Khmer Rouge rebels were hiding in the forests of those provinces in the 1960s as the extension of the conflict between communist Vietnam and the USA. The eventual takeover by the Khmer Rouge in 1975, which further led to a Vietnamese occupation (until 1991), could have totally destroyed the traditions of the ethnic minorities of north-east Cambodia, but throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the indigenous people restarted their practice of swidden agriculture (slash and burn) and gong playing, keeping their animist ceremonies and beliefs alive. It’s only as recent as the 21st century that rubber plantations and development for the sake of big companies of dominant ethnic groups (Khmer, Vietnamese, Chinese) took over and have become a real threat to the way of life of ethnic minorities who are not considered.

Here you can listen to various gong ensembles being played during animist rituals and for drinking the fermented rice alcohol called TAVEI, recorded at a time where rubber plantations had not taken the territory of indigenous people, and Khmer techno music had not ruined ancestral music. The Brao people are settled on both sides of the border, numbering around 30,000 in Cambodia with a similar number in Laos. Divided into subgroups, they all speak roughly the same language. Two types of music can be distinguished: the first, for entertainment, uses bamboo stringed instruments and singing; the second consists of gong ensembles used for animist celebrations, often including buffalo sacrifices. These gong ensembles are geographically distributed across the central Vietnamese plateau, southern Laos (Champasak and Attapeu provinces), and northeastern Cambodia (Ratanakiri and Mondolkiri provinces).

- Laurent Jeanneau