Category: Night & Day

WEDNESDAY 27 | The end, when it finally came, was as unforeseeable as it was barbaric. Foxy Lady, a 28ft traditional Malaysian perahu bedar, was just a few months into what was meant to be the trip of a lifetime. From Darwin harbour on Australia’s rugged northern coast, the tiny yacht had nosed her way through the crystalline waters of the Pacific Ocean, past Timor and Flores, then on to Bali and Singapore, before heading up the Straits of Malacca and around the tip of the Malaysian peninsula. On board, a trio of tanned young adventurers passed for captain and crew. Kerry Hamill was 27 when he wrote his last journal entry from 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 little 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, Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 8:30pm November 27
WHY: The ghost of the Khmer Rouge confronted

 

SUNDAY 24 | She’s an African-born French jazz singer famed for pop experimentalism, recording an album with Dizzy Gillespie’s drummer, being signed to the same label as junior UK jazz genius Jamie Cullum and touring with Afrocentric sax legend Archie Shepp. He’s a pianist/singer/trumpet player/composer/conductor/actor/writer/teacher/showman/comedian who has performed at Manhattan’s music monument Carnegie Hall, written film scores such as Le Courage D’Aimer (‘The Courage To Love’) and caused something of a stir when he appeared in front of the camera for the first time in a recent film by what might just be France’s most famous director. Mina Agossi and Laurent Couson, who’ve been circling each other in the international jazz ring for more than a decade, are finally coming together for a Southeast Asia tour. Expect the unexpectable: the duo are ratcheting up the suspense factor by promising a high-end evening of one-off, never-heard-before, kind-of-made-up-on-the-spot jazz improv – organised by Phnom Penh’s very own jazz leviathan, Philippe Javelle – within the historic confines of the city’s most distinguished hotel. Nice. Laurent Couson put down his baton briefly to tell The Advisor about his plans for the night: “Mina had been following me for many years. She’s probably the most famous jazz singer in France; she wins all the jazz awards. She kept telling me: ‘We have to do something together!’ I was trying to think what we do, because we’re very different in the type of music we like and the way we play. We have the same bass player, Eric Jacquot, who has been playing with us for 15 years. Eric arranged this. He said: ‘Now let’s go on the road together and see what happens.’ So the only thing I can say to you tonight is that I don’t know what’s going to happen! [Laughs] Let’s see, because I really don’t know what’s going to happen!”

WHO: Laurent Couson and Mina Agossi
WHAT: A very special evening of live, off-the-cuff jazz with two of France’s finest
WHERE: Grand Ballroom, Raffles Le Royal, Daun Penh Street & Monivong Boulevard
WHEN: 5pm November 24
WHY: One-off, never-heard-before, kind-of-made-up-on-the-spot jazz improv

 

SATURDAY 23 | Danish-born, Paris-based saxophonist Martin Jacobsen collects passport stamps and luggage stickers the way the rest of us collect coffee-shop loyalty card points. To Phnom Penh, Ho Chi Minh City and Danang this November he brings with him two Parisians of Vietnamese heritage, Duylinh Nguyen on bass and Vinh Lê on piano. “Mongolia has been independent for only 20 years and jazz is still very new,” he says of his travels. “I’ve in fact been the first ever jazz educator to come to Mongolia on a regular basis for now a year. Ulaanbaatar’s first jazz club opened a few months ago, the small yearly jazz festival is getter bigger and the Minister of Culture, a woman, loves jazz and helps the scene. Mongolians are an incredibly musical people and their own traditional music scene is very strong. They respond very well to jazz – rhythm, melodies, harmonies – and it’s really exciting to see how the scene is unfolding there. Because of big social differences in Mongolia, the jazz audience is often made up of either more well-off Mongolians or foreigners living there, but with the new jazz club (run by Mongolia’s only jazz pianist) it’s now possible for everyone to come and listen to jazz.”

WHO: Martin Jacobsen Trio
WHAT: Jazz, man
WHERE: Cabaret, Street 154
WHEN: 7:30pm November 23
WHY: There ain’t nothin’ like a Dane

 

FRIDAY 22 | At the pinnacle of the late-1980s UK club scene, when places like the Blitz and people like Steve Strange ruled a Gomorrah of 24-hour gender-bending pop excess, the truly rebellious were breaking into abandoned school buildings in Brixton, wiring the places up with admirably jerry-rigged sound systems and shaking the windows with music that didn’t suck. Paul Adair was a 20-something college radio DJ from small-town New Zealand. He had come of age on New Order, The Smiths, Cabaret Voltaire and early UK electronica. London was the fount of all music. Vinyl was the substrate. “The ’80s,” says Adair, who spins under the name Dr Wahwah, “is completely underrated. A whole lot of people associate it with bad haircuts and the music videos that all came out, but look: it was a time when a lot of musical genres that dominate now came to the fore.” Untethered in the Big Smoke, Adair quickly fell in behind the turntables at London squat parties. Twelve-inch wax became his currency. His collection grew from a few dozen discs in the beginning to more than a thousand by the time he returned home in 1993. Adair’s collection has been mostly closeted since, more a souvenir from his colourful youth than any actively curated library. But he got the jones again recently and started buying records, hence Vinyl Mania, a party at Meta House for Dr Wahwah and wax lovers to spend the night together. The culmination of a two-year buying spree, Wahwah’s newest additions are “predominantly dance” he says, but there’s lots of eclectic obscurata there too: Japanese funk, limited-edition underground disco, minimalist African house. He’s joined tonight by Nico Mesterharm, aka DJ Nicomatic, who brought his vinyl collection from Germany to Phnom Penh two years ago. Combined with Dr Wahwah’s set, the library pushes 3,000 titles.

WHO: Dr Wahwah and DJ Nicomatic
WHAT: Vinyl Mania
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard
WHEN: 9pm November 22
WHY: Sounds from the European underground have never been so accessible

 

FRIDAY 22  |  Milestones, recorded in 1958, is considered one of Miles Davis’ most energetic albums. Predating 1959’s Kind Of Blue, which became the album that defined jazz, it represents one of Miles’ first forays into modal jazz experimentation. The recording sessions featured some of the genre’s finest: John Coltrane, Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley, Paul Chambers, Red Garland and Philly Joe Jones. Tonight, GTS Sextet – Euan Gray, Stephan Routtier, Alex Scarpati and GTS’ original trio of Gabi Faja, Toma Willen and Sebastien Adnot – will recreate Milestones in its entirety, complete with wicked bop licks. Don’t forget your jazz hands.

WHO: GTS Jazz Sextet
WHAT: Recreating Miles Davis’ Milestones album live
WHERE: Doors, Street 84 & 47
WHEN: 9:30pm November 22
WHY: Jazz simply doesn’t come any cooler than this

 

SATURDAY 23 | The thought of endorsing roots reggae groups founded by Frenchmen can trigger apprehension in reggae snobs, especially when such groups have never set foot on Jamaican soil. But what Vibratone lack in geographical legitimacy they more than make up for with enthusiasm. Between them, Ben and Leonard (guitar), Julien (bass), Vibol (keys), Luis (drums) and Maia (vocals) boast an eclectic background, with musical roots from Brazil to France to the Philippines, yet their all-original reggae genuinely rocks. Keep your ears peeled for Dreams, of which Maia says: “Dreams talks about just that: dreams. The wants, needs and desires that we all have. When I wrote it, it began on a really materialistic note – be it money, a house, a car – then Julien and I spoke and I realised it needed more substance, so there is this transition between the first and second verses.  It talks about being at peace with oneself and gaining happiness through fulfilment. We have another song called Who Are You Fooling? and it’s very political; it criticises the status quo and speaks about injustices.”

WHO: Vibratone
WHAT: All-original reggae that rocks
WHERE: Doors, Street 84 & 47
WHEN: 9:30pm November 23
WHY: See ‘WHAT’

 

WEDNESDAY 20 | Start with nine girls from nine countries: Amina (Afghanistan), Yasmin (Egypt), Senna (Peru), Suma (Nepal), Ruksana (India), Mariama (Sierra Leone), Wadly (Haiti) and Cambodia’s very own Sokha. Pair them with writers from their country so the stories are told in their own words then top it off the celebrity voice-overs, including Cate Blanchett, Selena Gomez and Alicia Keys. Girl Rising, a 101-minute documentary directed by Richard Robbins and part of the 10X10 series, showcases girls who rise above all odds. They start from a beginning of abject poverty. Their various experiences include forced marriage, indentured labour, scavenging and sexual abuse. Then there is a definable moment for each. The stars align, a puff of ju-ju smoke appears, a whispered inshallah is uttered and their lives forever change. The nine heroines of the film emerge as powerful young women, in charge of their own lives, and able to make a contribution.

WHO: The fairer sex
WHAT: Girl Rising screening
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 8pm November 20
WHY: Given equal treatment, girls WILL change the world

 

WEDNESDAY 20 | In a world teetering on the brink of self-destruction, award-winning filmmaker Velcrow Ripper sets out on a unique pilgrimage. Visiting the ‘Ground Zeros’ of the planet, he asks if it’s possible to find hope in the darkest moments of human history. During a five-year odyssey exploring whether humanity can transform the scared into the ‘sacred’, Ripper travels to war-torn Afghanistan; the toxic wasteland of Bhopal; post-9/11 New York, and the minefields of Cambodia. Here, in the jungle, he meets Aki Ra, once a child soldier forced to lay landmines for the Khmer Rouge. Today Aki wanders Cambodia’s ravaged countryside with a simple wooden stick, decommissioning thousands of mines each year. Here, as in each Ground Zero, the film unearths unforgettable stories of survival, of ritual, resilience and recovery.

WHO: Award-winning filmmaker Velcrow Ripper
WHAT: Scared Sacred screening
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd
WHEN: 4pm November 20
WHY: “The human capacity for burden is like bamboo: far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance.” – Jodi Picoult

 

SUNDAY 17 |  The ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180 degrees tonight, making it that time again: time to check the palms of your hands for any lupine-looking hairs. Satisfy yourself with a quick howl, or really unleash your wild side and celebrate the full moon in style on Koh Rong Samloem, accessible by ‘party boat’ only, where DJs Flo, Lefty, Wez-T, Lion and Funk Elastiks await your presence (for $40, you can get bussed all the way from Meta House, where tickets are now on sale). For diehard landlubbers, there’s another party at the newly opening Arcadia Backpackers in Kampot, this time a product of Kimchi Collective’s Dan Beck.

WHO: Werewolves and other nocturnal types
WHAT: Full moon parties
WHERE: Koh Rong Samloem island and Arcadia Backpackers in Kampot
WHEN: November 17
WHY: “ArrrOOOOOOOOOO!”

 

SATURDAY 16 | Fusing reggae and dub with Khmer saravan, Dub Addiction – voted Phnom Penh’s best band in The Advisor’s 2013 reader awards – are back after an epic tour of Europe. ‘Dirty’ and ‘raw’ are adjectives that sit well with their recently released second album, Dub Addiction Meets Kampuchea Rockers Uptown, the hallmark of which is a more “organic, authentic dub sound” than the band’s eponymous first release. Says German music producer Professor Kinski, known to friends as Jan Mueller: “The whole album sounds more epic, more massive, more dub than the first one.” Their main ragamuffin toasters are MC Curly and DJ Khla, the latter someone Kinski compares to Cutty Ranks, Sizla and Anthony B. Sights and sounds familiar to Phnom Penh long-termers ooze through the mixer to create a distinctly Cambodian soundscape. A high point – if you’ll pardon the pun – is The Mighty Plan, on which “the voice of LSD guru Terence McKenna is lecturing about mankind’s first contact with aliens over an ultra-massive slow shuffle dub groove of Lee Perry – one of the best instrumentals on the album”. And it can only be right and proper to follow with a song entitled Ganja Dub, although it’s clearly far too fast for anyone genuinely out of their mind on marijuana. “We intend to conquer the universe,” a disembodied voice declares as Dub Addiction drive their mega-phat electro dub juggernaut into your sternum. You Have Been Warned!

WHO: Dub Addiction
WHAT: Reggae reinvented
WHERE: Equinox, Street 278
WHEN: 9pm November 16
WHY: Somewhere, in that great dancehall in the sky, King Tubby should be smoking a fat one and smiling