Obscure record collector David Murray spent five years trawling the dustbins of Southeast Asia in search of music’s rarest vinyl species: the 78rpm. His efforts have been compiled into a four CD box set titled Longing for the Past. Boomkat has the details:
‘Longing For The Past’ surveys 90 kaleidoscopic pieces from 78rpm records recorded between 1905-1966 across Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. As to be expected, they’re practically all swaddled in a rich patina of fuzz, the inevitable pock-marks of time when you consider many were not properly stored, but the fact they’re here and still sounding so bright and otherworldly should be considered a minor miracle. We’re effectively bearing witness to another world through the smeary windows of an archaic time machine, offering privileged, rare glimpse of the region’s indigenous music and culture before they were ravaged and irrevocably altered by all manner of factors, from war and genocide to the pervasive influence of imperialist cultural policy.
In addition to the 90 tracks, the set also contains a substantial book with pictures from the era and meticulous notes on each song and its instruments. Taken together, the combined work is an immense effort by any standard and an unrivaled contribution to the documented history of Southeast Asian music. That it exists at all is nothing short of amazing. And for less than 50 quid, it’s practically a steal.