Category: Night & Day

FRIDAY 7 | Near the city of León in Nicaragua is an impoverished 8,000-strong community of Subtiava Indians, forced onto inhospitable lands where the rate of teenage pregnancy is now twice that of sub-Saharan Africa. Most households have been robbed of their men by civil war. Those who remain labour in sugarcane fields doused in toxins, kidney failure accounting for more than 80% of deaths in men aged 35 – 45. Since 2007, photographer Martin Bandzak has been carefully documenting the cycle of poverty in Subtiava for his new exhibition, El Campo, which opens at Tepui tonight.

WHO: Martin Bandzak
WHAT: El Campo photography exhibition
WHERE: Tepui @ Chinese House, #45 Sisowath Quay (corner of Street 84)
WHEN: 7pm February 7
WHY: There but for the grace of God…

FRIDAY 7 | It would take Eric Clapton’s 1974 cover of I Shot The Sheriff to bring the music of Bob Marley – the dreads-sporting spawn of 1960s’ Jamaican ska and rock steady – to the rockers of the wider world, but when reggae finally made land, it made land in style. By 1972, this new rhythm had bubbled to the top of the US Billboard Hot 100, first with Three Dog Night’s roots cover of Black And White then with the gentle contemporary groove of I Can See Clearly Now, by Johnny Nash. From the loins of pioneers such as Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and King Tubby have sprung forth a new generation of lyrical Rastafarians who, like their forefathers, use the sacrament of music to promote everything from ganja to the unifying concept of One Love. Among their number are Kaztet D (MC, singer, activist, made in France), the creative force behind new reggae sound system collective Wat A Gwaan (‘What’s going on?’ in reggae lingo), who tonight is joined by DJs Polaak, Tonle Dub and Mercy.

WHO: Wat A Gwaan
WHAT: Reggae sound system collective
WHERE: Oscar 51, #29 Street 51 (corner of Street 172)
WHEN: 9:30pm February 7
WHY: Bob would approve

SUNDAY 2 | ‘In the colourful cabarets and sepia-lit dance halls of Old Shanghai, jazz was the background score to a fleshy world of mobsters, adventurers and sing-song girls. Old Shanghai was the uncontested jazz capital of Asia, where musicians from the world over tested their musical mettle nightly to the delight of enthusiastic audiences. In 1935, Du Yu Sheng, the notorious overlord of Shanghai’s ominous ‘Green Gang’, ordered into creation the first all-Chinese jazz group, The Clear Wind Dance Band, to perform at the Yangtze River Hotel Dance Hall. Critics called the music ‘pornographic,’ but the band played on just the same.’ So sayeth ShanghaiJazz.com of the era being channelled tonight by PP-based jazzophile Philippe Javelle to celebrate Chinese New Year in feather boa-ed style.

WHO: Philippe Javelle (keys)
WHAT: A night of 1930s Shanghai jazz
WHERE: Riverhouse Lounge, #157 Sisowath Quay
WHEN: 7:30pm February 2
WHY: Celebrate Chinese New Year in feather boa-ed style (if slightly late)

 

SATURDAY 1 | People of a certain persuasion insist the place is haunted. Others take one look and think: ‘PARRRRRTAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!’ So it is that the long-abandoned Riverside Hotel, which when you’re scrambling over mountains of long-unslept-on mattresses bears an eery resemblance to the Overlook in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, is to harbour life once more – albeit briefly. For one night only, the building’s otherwise deserted (save for the odd spook) ballrooms will swell with the sound of at least 10 international DJs and thousands of ravers – potentially saving the owners a small fortune when they finally unleash the wrecking ball next month to make way for something less Jack Nicholson-esque (bring your own sledgehammer?). Giving sermon at the lectern of sound will be DJ Devin (globetrotting Swiss-Indonesian psyche guru), Bart Ricardo (credited with bringing Chicago house to Belgium in the late ’90s) and Il Toro (classically trained Italian musician/minimal techno DJ who now lives on a remote beach in Thailand). Joining them are local likely lads Simon C Vent, Funkelastiks, Dr Wah-Wah, Wes-T, Dan Beck of the Kimchi Collective, Alan Ritchie and, last but not least, DJs Flo and Lefty in a full-on head-to-head. Seven floors, 180 rooms; hundreds of disused mini bars and mattresses: it’s all yours for the night. Literally: they’re braced to rage until long past dawn. You can check out any time you like, but will you want to leave?

WHO: Underground ravers of every hue
WHAT: Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming (WILD) DJ party
WHERE: Riverside Hotel, #1 Sisowath Quay (cnr St. 94)
WHEN: 10pm February 1
WHY: RED RUM! RED RUM! RED RUM!

 

FRIDAY 31 | Music visionary Danny Rampling, former BBC Radio 1 and Kiss FM DJ, is perhaps best known as the man behind Shoom, one of the first acid house nights in late-’80s London. It was Rampling who took the smiley face logo and made it synonymous with dance music. Rampling, too, who bossed Radio 1’s Love Groove, becoming a global name after selling more than a million albums. He’s spun privately for George Michael, The Pet Shop Boys, Mick Hucknell, Gloria Estefan, Depeche Mode, Patrick Cox, Antonio Berardi and Boy George. And tonight, he – author of Everything You Need To Know About DJing & Success – takes the decks at Pontoon, alongside his American DJ wife Ilona, for your listening pleasure (tickets: $8).

WHO: Mr & Mrs Danny & Ilona Rampling
WHAT: Veteran DJs
WHERE: Pontoon Pulse, Street 172
WHEN: 9pm January 31
WHY: He made the smiley face famous

 

FRIDAY 30 | British composer Brian Eno’s choice of the word ‘ambient’ to describe his music, from the Latin ambire (‘to surround’), was a deliberate one: his were soundscapes that could alter your state of mind; put you into a ‘higher state’ – the sort of existential altitude usually associated with psychedelics. Inspired by John Cage, who occasionally composed by throwing the I Ching, Eno had made possible Clockwork Orange; Pink Floyd; The Orb and Aphex Twin; down-tempo chill-out designed to ease a tripped-out mind. Emerging custodians of that sound here include DJ Nicomatic, James Speck (on the splendidly named Korg Kaosillator) and Tim King (guitar), who collectively – under the moniker Electronic Universe – are perhaps Phnom Penh’s first and only live ambient fusion outfit. Joined for their first all-improvised show by flautist Anton Isselhardt, gigs can involve everything from Tibetan bowls to a singing saw. Says King: “When we’re doing this, I feel like Nico is the mothership and we’re just little spaceships flying around him, interacting.”

WHO: DJ Nicomatic, James Speck (Korg Kaosillator) and Tim King (guitar)
WHAT: Live ambient fusion
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 9pm January 30
WHY: “Ambient Music is intended to induce calm and a space to think” – Brian Eno

 

THURSDAY 30 | It may be some time before Phnom Penh is in a position to host an opera in its entirety, which would involve a cast of hundreds, but good news: jazz maestro Gabi Faja is hosting an appetiser of sorts along with very modern mezzo-soprano Ai Iwasaki (pictured). Having completed a postgraduate degree in Opera Musicology at her native Tokyo’s Shouwa University of Music in 2010, Ai moved to Italy under the tutelage of Master Lucetta Bicci. Now living in Phnom Penh, Ai cautions that opera isn’t for the faint of heart: “As a teenager in Japan I had always liked to sing, but then I went to an opera performance and was staggered by the power and intensity of this amazing thing. Opera isn’t just singing. It’s history, it’s psychology, it’s love. One of my favourite composers is Monteverdi, which means ‘Mount Green’: he belongs to an Italian school from three to four hundred years ago, when opera was barely developed. The music is so simple because it was early days, so the singing becomes the most important. Also they had gods who were all having sex with each other and killing each other. It was really full of drama – even more so then because of the shock value at the time.” And what of this appetiser? Says Gabi: “Because we can’t do a fully fledged opera, we take some of the most famous and the most beautiful arias and we do a melange, a collage of arias from different operas. It can be anything from Mozart to Puccini and beyond, so you get the best of the best in a nutshell. Opera can be done in a modern, popular way. You can do it in the streets; you can do Stomp and Puccini, there’s no stopping you!” [Bursts into jazz rendition of Un Bel Di from Madame Butterfly]

WHO: Ai Iwasaki (mezzo-soprano) and Gabi Faja (piano)
WHAT: A night at the opera
WHERE: Doors, Street 84 & 47
WHEN: 8:30pm January 30
WHY: Opera is the most misunderstood of art forms

 

TUESDAY 28 | Kerry Hamill was 27 when he wrote his last journal entry from his yacht Foxy Lady in August 1978. The eldest son of a tight-knit New Zealand family, he – along with fellow travellers Stuart Glass, a Canadian, and John Dewhirst from England – would within weeks join the handful of foreigners executed by the Khmer Rouge. At the time, few people outside Cambodia knew of the atrocities being committed within. Before Foxy Lady’s course was forever altered, Kerry had sent countless letters back home, regaling his family with breathless tales. Suddenly, the letters stopped. The silence was deafening. It would be a further 18 months before the Hamills finally discovered what awful fate had befallen their son. Thirty-one years later, on the same day Kerry’s yacht had first strayed into Cambodian waters, his younger brother Rob – an Olympic and Trans-Atlantic rowing champion – arrived in Phnom Penh to confront Kerry’s killers at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. At the same time, he agreed to the filming of Brother Number One, an award-winning documentary by Annie Goldson, James Bellamy and Peter Gilbert that follows Rob as he retraces Kerry’s final steps. Along the way he visits Tuol Sleng, where his brother was tortured; meets three S-21 survivors, and penetrates a Khmer Rouge stronghold to find the Navy officer in charge when Kerry’s yacht was attacked. The resulting film is “the story of an innocent man brought to his knees and killed in the prime of his life, and the impact his death had on just one family”.

WHO: Rob Hamill
WHAT: Brother Number One screening
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 7pm January 28
WHY: The ghost of the Khmer Rouge confronted

 

SUNDAY 26 | He comes via the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and several rock collaborations (think Motley Crüe, Nickelback and Yes) and tonight, Canadian violinist Brian Larson – a veteran of more than 3,000 concert performances – teams up with Malaysian super-drummer Lewis Pragasam, with Philippe Javelle on keys. Expect a heady mixture of classical masterpieces, jazz standards and electric violin (tickets, $5, can be reserved at info@nullthegroove.asia).

WHO: Brian Larson (violin), with Lewis Pragasam (drums) and Philippe Javelle (keys)
WHAT: A heady mixture of classical masterpieces, jazz standards and electric violin
WHERE: The Groove, #1c Street 282
WHEN: 9pm January 26
WHY: If he’s good enough for Motley Crüe…

 

SUNDAY 26 | Meltingly beautiful melodies, daring modulations and harmonic surprises: experience the finest chamber music from the late 18th and early 19th centuries with works by Joseph Haydn, Willibald Gluck, Giuiseppe Sammartini, VonDittersdorf, all lovingly brought to life by the Ensemble Triothlon of Anton Isselhardt (flute), Markus Gundermann (violin) and Tara Mar (violoncello). Tickets ($7) can be reserved by calling 077 787038.

WHO: Ensemble Triothlon
WHAT: Chamber music from the late 18th and early 19th centuries
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 8pm January 26
WHY: Meltingly beautiful melodies, daring modulations and harmonic surprises