Playing the Kse Diev in VR
No way.
No way because after the Khmer Rouge killed as many artists as possible during their reign of terror fifty years ago in Cambodia, no one knew how to play the Kse Diev. The instrument has a single brass string and a gourd resonator. It probably goes back to 7th Century and there are pictures of it on the walls of Angkor Wat.
Well, almost no one.
Sok Duch survived, pretended he was a barber.
Still, people had to find him, help him back to good health, and bring students to learn from him. Sinat was one of his first students, someone from a village nearby who has now become a modern Master of the traditional Khmer instruments. It has changed his life.
The Kse Diev, which resonates into the chest of the player over the heart, has survived. It is returning to shows, events, and weddings in Cambodia now.
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No way it could be sent into a computer over the Internet and into Virtual Reality.
The Kse Diev is a subtle instrument. Sinat has to pluck the brass string with a weird finger pick and also control how it vibrates and what sound it makes with a little cord at the top.
I didn’t think the sound would be loud or clear enough to make out the twelve or more individual notes he can produce. I had a short video of him playing all cued up.
It wasn’t necessary.
With the microphone right at the gourd, a very pure and distinctive sound somehow made it along a digital pathway to the AltspaceVR servers and from there into our ears as disturbed air caused by Sinat’s control of the string back in Phnom Penh.
Altogether, Sinat played three instruments in the show:
- Sneing, buffalo horn
- Kse Diev, one stringed instrument
- Pei Pok, single reed bamboo flute
all live from Phnom Penh.
Sinat is part of a small group of artists who used to ride the Khmer Magic Music Bus to remote villages in Cambodia playing old music, new music and a fusion of both.
Sinat taught young people what the old instruments sound like.
The pandemic shut down the show, not just the Khmer Magic Music Bus but all shows, all performers everywhere in the world are struggling.
We were forced into VR.
We were forced into the future.
When it comes to live performance, cutting edge art, and traditional culture, the future is already feeling immersive.
We were just a small group of artists (them) and marginal media types (me). We didn’t have a ton of dough or a team of tech gurus. It took us ten times longer than it should have to solve a few basic audio problems. But we always figured them out eventually.
We pulled off three hour-long events in the EvolVR channel of AltspaceVR, using a variety show format, with a consistent structure and new material every time. Seyma Thon was the featured vocalist. Thuch Savang accompanied her on guitar. Savang is also an accomplished Khim player, the Cambodian version of a hammered dulcimer.
Old Masters were celebrated. Young artists and people working to build a new Cambodia were all introduced to a world audience in virtual seats facing a virtual stage. Behind them on the stage was a large screen showing pictures of the performers whose avatars were there with us in the theater.
When Sinat played, his avatar moved around a little, his arms moving a little too, as a series of pictures showed his other avatar, the one we call our body, performing. Both are representations of Sinat.
Soon enough, bandwidth will allow a holo-Sinat to appear before us, playing instruments we have never heard before, never imagined that way of making notes. That will be fine when it happens.
Now we are showing the future is culturally connected.
Now we are showing that thirty or more unique visitors will drop in on events with names like, The Khmer Magic Music Bus in VR, and stay for an average of 22 minutes each. Some people who didn’t know where Cambodia was before the show stayed from beginning to end.
The experience that some people in Cambodia have had in turning music and performance into the energy that helps rebuild a society is inspiring. It is just what the whole world needs right now because it’s true. There is nothing more cooperative and connecting than music.
There can be Magic Music Buses everywhere. If artists around the world can’t perform live, they can perform for us in virtual worlds where staging will go to places Lady Gaga hasn’t imagined yet.
I look forward to music I’ve never heard and never heard of.
I look forward to songs we will all play together.
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