Organization

Cambodian Vintage Music Archive


The Cambodian Vintage Music Archive (CVMA) is a nonprofit that collects, preserves and shares Cambodian music recorded before 1975.[1] Its focus is the "golden era" of Cambodian popular music, from about 1955 to 1975, before the Khmer Rouge destroyed the country's film and music industry.[1][2] It is registered in the United States as a 501(c)(3) organization and, as of 2024, was based in Clearwater, Florida.[3][4]

History

The archive was founded in Phnom Penh in 2010 by three co-founders. Its mission page names them as Rotanak Oum, Nate Hun and Maya Oum.[3] A 2018 fundraising page names them as Maya Jade, Nate Hun and Rotanak Oudom Oum.[5] In 2019 Nate Hun said the idea of digitizing records came first, and that the archive started in 2009 as a way to share his own vinyl collection online.[6] The three pooled their own money to search for and buy original vinyl records and other recordings in Cambodia and abroad. They researched each song and interviewed surviving artists, singers, actors and their families.[5]

The work has been self-funded, with donations from friends, family, distant relatives and members of the local community.[6][5] By 2018 the archive had digitized more than 500 original vinyl records from collectors.[5] It helped the family of the singer Sinn Sisamouth raise money for the funeral of his son, Sinn Chan Chhaya. It also gathered evidence for the family's request to the Royal Government of Cambodia for copyright in his songs, and by 2018 more than 100 songs had been granted legal copyright.[5]

The archive

CVMA digitally archives classical and popular Cambodian recordings together with their front and back covers, liner notes, related documents and oral histories. It has digitized hundreds of pre-1975 records, and some of the original covers were rescued after the genocide.[7] For each recording it catalogs the song, singers, writers, label and date.[6] The founders taught themselves to make their own high-fidelity digital transfers and audio restoration. The archive's site offers a before-and-after example of a restored Sinn Sisamouth song, "The Unfinished Song."[7]

The archive works closely with the families of golden-era artists, with collectors and fans in Cambodia and abroad, and with regional and international arts organizations.[7] It helps surviving artists, their families and collectors gain copyright control of the music. Its records serve as legal proof of composition and ownership that can support royalty payments, and it makes periodic direct donations to them.[7][2][8] It takes requests to digitize vintage Cambodian media and offers exhibitions of its work to institutions.[1]

Releases

CVMA reissues the music on vinyl and as high-fidelity digital transfers.[1] Its online archive is free on SoundCloud and YouTube.[5] On Bandcamp it issues new catalogs every Sunday at 7 p.m. Eastern time, Monday at 7 a.m. in Phnom Penh, with subscriber-only and back-catalog releases.[9][10] Its releases include recordings by Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Sereysothea, Pen Ran, Sos Math, Im Song Serm, Huoy Meas, Meas Hok Seng, So Savoeun and Baksei Cham Krung. Many come from the Chan Chhaya label, and others from labels such as Chadomukh, Kampuchea, Heng Meas, Wat Phnom, Blue Star, Bayon and Olympic.[9][10][11]

Filmmakers, ethnomusicologists, researchers and fans have drawn on the archive's recordings and images.[7] The archive says its work was used in the award-winning films Golden Slumbers (2011) and Don't Think I've Forgotten (2014).[7] It also digitized tracks by Sinn Sisamouth, Chhoun Malay and Sieng Vannthy for the soundtrack compilation Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll.[5]

Exhibitions and events

CVMA held three vinyl exhibitions in Cambodia and South Korea. They included a display at Meta House, the German Cambodian Cultural Center in Phnom Penh, in 2015 and the exhibition "Cambodia Lost Rock & Roll" at the Asia Cultural Center in Gwangju, South Korea, in 2016.[5] In 2016 it also gave a presentation at the Cambodia Town Film Festival in Long Beach, California.[5]

After an April 25, 2013, screening of Golden Slumbers, co-founder Maya answered questions. In 2016 Rotanak Oum, who performs as DJ Oro, played rare 1960s Cambodian vinyl in April, and in June the Institut français du Cambodge held an evening of Khmer music that he presented. On April 8, 2018, the archive and the Mietophoum Khmer Spirit Center opened an exhibition of Sinn Sisamouth records at the Mark Twain Library. In May 2018 the singer So Savoeun and Oum, as CVMA president, were guests at a Cambodian Golden Age Forum in France during the Season of Cambodia. The forum discussed why golden-era music should be preserved. That July a film festival screened Nate from Lowell, MA, LinDa Saphan's film about Nate Hun.[4][5]

In 2019 the archive presented So Savoeun and fellow artists at Meta House in January. In May it held a Cambodian Vintage Music Night at JAM Gallery, and Oum gave a program on reviving forgotten Cambodian music at the Hard Rock Cafe in Phnom Penh. In October Hun and the ethnomusicologist David Novak spoke about music preservation at the New York Public Library.[4] Hun has also presented the archive at the Music Library of the University of California, Santa Barbara, at an event sponsored by the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music.[6][4] In October 2022 he joined a question-and-answer session on Cambodian prewar cinema in New York. In October 2023 CVMA played a DJ set of Khmer classics at the launch of the book The Golden Voice in Long Beach. On April 27, 2024, it held a Cambodian cultural night at the Clearwater Community Volunteers Center with a screening of Don't Think I've Forgotten, songs played by young Cambodians and a DJ set.[4]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Cambodian Vintage Music Archive, home page
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 CVMA, CVMA
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cambodian Vintage Music Archive, Mission
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Cambodian Vintage Music Archive, Events
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 GoFundMe, Cambodian 60's Music Preservation, organized by Rotanak Oum (2018)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 UC Santa Barbara, Music Archive Restores Lost Cambodian Culture (June 5, 2019)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 CVMA, Archive - CVMA
  8. ↑ Loop & Replay, The Rise and Fall of Cambodian Rock and Roll (July 2018)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 The Cambodian Vintage Music Archive, Inc., Music - The Cambodian Vintage Music Archive, Inc.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 The Cambodian Vintage Music Archive, Inc., Bandcamp subscription page
  11. ↑ The Cambodian Vintage Music Archive Inc, SoundCloud

Sources

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This page was last edited on 27 September 2026, at 07:20.