Advisor

SATURDAY SUNDAY 31-1 | “Marriage is a wonderful institution,” once quipped Groucho Marx, “but who wants to live in an institution?” Who indeed? Some of you lot, as it turns out – and so the Sofitel is throwing open its doors to betrothed types for a Wedding Fair this weekend. Expect a haute couture wedding wear show by local designers along with jewellery; decosrations; videography and music.

WHO: The nuptially inclined
WHAT: Wedding Fair
WHERE: Grand Ballroom, Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, Sothearos Boulevard
WHEN: 9am-5pm August 31 & September 1
WHY: “Marriage is a wonderful institution…” – Groucho Marx

SATURDAY 31 | Chhan Dina and Warren Daly are daring to tread in some of history’s most well-heeled footsteps. The duo – one a classically trained Cambodian artist; the other a DJ from Ireland – are redefining for the 21st century the complex relationship between sound and vision. Dina and Daly merge electronic dance music with live instruments and artists and audience participation to create a multisensory experience – a trip without a trip. Led by Daly, who in 2000 co-founded online record label Invisible Agent, they’re building on the work of 1960s San Francisco arts collectives that used disco balls and light projections on smoke to produce trip-like sensations (The Brotherhood of Light, who toured with The Grateful Dead, were inspired by the Beat generation and Ken Kesey’s ‘expansion of consciousness’ Acid Tests). In Swagger, Daly fuses pop culture, high culture and low culture by hooking painters, musicians, graffiti artists, digital artists and DJs into one psychedelic show.

WHO: The sonically and visually open-minded
WHAT: Swagger
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd
WHEN: 10pm August 31
WHY: A trip without a trip

SATURDAY 31 | In Greek mythology it’s a serpent-like water beast; in Marvel Comics, a gang of terrorists. Fortunately for our purposes, Hydra is a Kuala Lumpur rock quintet that covers hits and ballads from the ’80s onwards.

WHO: Hydra
WHAT: Rock and ballad covers
WHERE: The Village, #1 Street 360
WHEN: 9pm August 31
WHY: They’re neither water beasts nor terrorists. Phew.

SATURDAY 31 | In 1976, a then 29-year-old David Bowie went to Los Angeles to record his tenth studio album, Station To Station. According to biographer David Buckley, Bowie spent most of his free time taking “astronomic” amounts of cocaine, burning black candles, channelling telepathic messages from the Rolling Stones and, allegedly, having his semen stolen by witches. Unsurprisingly he later claimed to remember almost nothing about the production. Using the namesake of the album that almost destroyed him is a rather more stable Bowie cover band comprised of big players in the local music scene, including Jet Odrerir and Smokin’ Kenny Smith. The set spans 14 years, 14 albums and about as many radical stylistic changes of Bowie’s career (pre-fame/pre-cocaine, pre-cocaine, cocaine, cocaine detox and post-cocaine, to name a few). Bring your dancing shoes and prepare for the return of the Thin White Duke.

WHO: Station To Station
WHAT: David Bowie tribute band
WHERE: Slur Bar, #28 Street 172
WHEN: 9pm August 31
WHY: Meet Ziggy Stardust, Major Tom, The Thin White Duke and The Man Who Fell To Earth all in one night

SATURDAY 31 | Rare posters and photographs capturing Cambodia’s filmmaking heyday in the 1960s have been gathered up, retouched and printed afresh by collector Soukhmean Sri for his new exhibition, Amazing Cambodia. Surviving stars of the country’s much-lauded Golden Era will be on hand at the opening, where students of Cambodia Living Arts College will also perform a traditional dance.

WHO: Surviving stars of Cambodia’s Golden Era
WHAT: Amazing Cambodia exhibition opening with guest speakers and live dance performance
WHERE: Meta House, Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 6pm August 31
WHY: Bring the swinging ’60s back to life

FRIDAY 30 | British-born country singer/songwriter Joe Wrigley meets the Cambodian Space Project’s Scott Bywater (vocals) and Adrien (bass) in what was originally intended to be a Buddy Holly tribute band but has since evolved into a ‘vampire rockabilly’ trio. “We’re going for the Sun Records/Gene Vincent kind of sound,” says Joe. “It’s the awesome era of guitar sound in between jazz and rock music, so players like Cliff Gallup and Scotty Moore were playing big archtops and gretsches very loud with lots of echo and it sounds like they’re just making up rock ‘n’ roll on the spot. You have that energy combined with the wild exuberance of early Elvis and Gene Vincent and it’s just wild, wild!”

WHO: Joe Wrigley & The Jumping Jacks
WHAT: Rockabilly
WHERE: Slur Bar, #28 Street 172
WHEN: 9:30pm August 30
WHY: It’s just wild, wild!

FRIDAY 30 | Euan Gray, frontman of Brisbane barefoot-in-the-sand band The Rooftops, gives more than a nod to his adopted home of Cambodia in many of his songs, from Rain Gambling to Monkeys & Elephants. “This could be my long-awaited push to finish some new songs I’ve been dreaming up,” he said before last week’s Vibe Music Festival at Doors. “I have half a chorus for a new song, called Paper Lexus. Last Chinese New Year, I saw people burning paper, factory made Lexuses along with fake money. All things will pass. Amazing symbolism: ironic and hopeful at the same time. I have another one that no one has heard yet called We Live Amongst The Tigers, about how ex-Khmer Rouge are everyday folk, driving our tuk tuks, planting rice, doing business; all trying to move on. ‘Working hard at moving on, working just as hard as anyone…’

WHO: The Euan Gray Trio
WHAT: Jazz meets pop
WHERE: The Groove, Terrazza, Street 282 & 51
WHEN: 9pm August 30
WHY: Almost as good as being barefoot in the sand

FRIDAY-SUNDAY 30-1 | Fredy is a talking orange monkey who was fathered by King Kong, at least that’s what French ventriloquist Christian Gabriel would have you believe. You be the judge. Just don’t burn him for witchcraft.

WHO: Christian Gabriel and Fredy
WHAT: Man & monkey ventriloquist act
WHERE: New York Steakhouse, #264 Street 63
WHEN: 6pm August 30 – September 1
WHY: Talking orange monkey fathered by King Kong

THURSDAY 29 | The psychedelic voice of the Cambodian Space Project, Chanthy Kak, takes a break from orbit to spin rare Southeast Asian vinyl in the guise of her DJ alter-ego, Cuppa Tea.

WHO: DJ Cuppa Tea
WHAT: Rare Southeast Asian vinyl
WHERE: Meta House, Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 9pm August 29
WHY: See ‘WHAT’

THURSDAY & SATURDAY 29 & 31 | Guitarist Diego Dimarques is perched on a barrelhouse stool, sipping bottles of Angkor and playing Spanish jazz at the finest music room in Phnom Penh. Clean-shaven with greying, shoulder-length hair, the 50-ish-year-old guitar player could easily pass for a son of Jose Reyes, the world-famous flamenco guitarist whose five sons – Nicolas, Canut, Paul, Patchai and Andre – comprise a majority of the Gipsy Kings. “There are rumours that I was part of the band, the one with the white hair,” Dimarques says, dispelling any notion that he might be a long-haired Nicolas Reyes in disguise. “I am not part of their family in the sense that we have no common blood.” But Dimarques is a fellow traveller on the same circuit, a compadre in heart and spirit, and considers Gipsy Kings co-founder Jalloul ‘Chico’ Bouchikhi both a friend and inspiration. “I met Chico when I was playing a hotel in Paris in 2006 or 2007 and he was there to promote his new album, Freedom. I was surprised to see him and I went to him to apologise for not playing his songs very well, but he told me: ‘The more they are played, the less we forget the culture.’ We talked together around a Pastis and he told me there was no problem if people thought I was part of the band!”

WHO: Diego Dimarques
WHAT: Gipsy and Latin music
WHERE: The Groove, Terrazza, Street 282
WHEN: 9pm August 29 & 31
WHY: Our very own Gipsy King