Cambodian band tackling sex industry, poverty in their music accepted for Grammy nomination (listen to them here)

[geovalin]

The latest album from half-Cambodian, half-Australian band Krom has been accepted for consideration for a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album.

And a song from the album about prostitution and poverty — Lil Suzie — has been accepted in the Song of the Year category.

The album, Mekong Delta Blues, takes its inspiration from Asia, using the rhythm of the Mekong River, the people's stories, the dark underbelly of the country and the soaring hope of its people.

Australian songwriter Chris Minko, who heads up the band, left Australia in 1996.

He was disillusioned by the arts scene, he said — and "the fact that technocrats and 'artocrats' had taken over and hijacked the Australian arts and music industry".

So he left the music industry and moved to Cambodia, where he spent the next 16 to 18 years working with disabled people.

 

"[It was] a truly inspiring experience," he said.

Then, five years ago Minko's wife, and the mother of his now 23-year-old daughter, died.

"At her temple in Bangkok, I swore that I would write a 14-track album for her... [and] out of that, came the first album, Songs From the Noir," he said.

'A remarkable musical partnership evolved'

But Minko needed a female singer — and he was introduced to Sophea Chamroeun.

"She walked into the studio, I gave her the tape, she took it in one take and from that moment on, a remarkable musical partnership evolved," he said.

One of Minko's core objectives now with Krom was to take the "truly remarkable voices" of Sophea Chamroeun, and her sister Sopheak, out into an international audience.

 

source http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-27/cambodian-band-krom-accepted-for-grammy-nomination/7784896