Few bands in the region do "noir" music as well as Cambodia's Krom, who will be playing in Bangkok tonight as well as Friday and Saturday.
Krom will play in Bangkok for three nights.
Krom's music is a touch of East meets West and is darker than the darkest night, with mournful Delta blues guitar mixing with the angelic voices of two classically-trained Khmer sisters. Their music is so dark it makes Leonard Cohen seem like a pop singer.
Krom touch on subjects like forced prostitution, human trafficking, poverty and the various abuses that are sadly all too common in Cambodia and other countries around the region.
Guitarist and band founder Chris Minko lived in Thailand for many years before moving to Cambodia in 1996 and sees the music of Krom as a cultural bridge between Cambodia and Thailand, neighbours with a long and sometimes difficult relationship. Thus there is also a strong Thai connection in Krom's music, in titles such as Sukhumvit Road, The Ying, Where'd Ya Go, Big City and Bangkok Tattoo (Minko is originally from Australia, and his late wife was Thai).
Krom's music is all original and the lyrics are a mixture of Khmer and English — Minko composes the music and writes some lyrics, but the bulk of the words come from lead singer Sophea Chamroeun.
"Sophea comes up with vocal melodies and Khmer lyrics — she is a remarkable talent. The core of Krom is me and Sophea and we sign the contracts as equal partners," Minko said.
The band's third album, Mekong Delta Blues, will be released in 2015, and their Bangkok shows this week will be their first outside Cambodia before they embark on a tour that will take them to Germany, France and Australia. They are also booked to play at the World of Music, Arts and Dance festival (Womad) in Europe next year.
Krom have a big following in the UK and parts of Europe after their songs came to the attention of award-winning BBC Radio 4 presenter Mark Coles. The band's first album, Songs From The Noir, was voted into the top 10 albums of 2012 by Coles' listeners and their second album, Neon Dark, was voted most popular album of 2013 by those who tune into the show.
In 2012, Krom were also commissioned to record the soundtrack for an Australian-Khmer documentary In Search Of Camp 32, A Journey Back To Year Zero, a suitably dark subject for the band's dark music. The film recounts the story of Cambodian killing fields survivor Bunhom Chhorn in his search to expose the truth behind one of the most notorious Khmer Rouge death camps. An estimated 30,000 Cambodians perished in the camp, in the northwestern province, during the regime of Pol Pot.
Despite the group having its origins in impoverished Cambodia, the members of Krom are not short of talent. Minko's mother was a German concert pianist before moving to Australia and he played classical trumpet in the Victorian Youth Orchestra in the early 1980s before taking up guitar and helping found the cult Melbourne band Bachelors From Prague.
Lead singer Sophea Chamroeun and her backup singer and sister Sopheak, who both grew up in a Phnom Penh slum known as the White Building, both started with the renowned Cambodia Living Arts (CLA) organisation at the age of 12. They are both recognised as leading traditional dancers and singers in Cambodia and continue to perform regularly with CLA at the National Museum in Phnom Penh.
They studied under the masters of traditional Khmer arts and are both graduates of the Royal University of Fine Arts. In Cambodia's National Singing Competition in 2012, Sopheak came first and Sophea was second, and this year Sopheak reached the final of the first Cambodia Voice television show.
The rest of Krom is made up of the multi-talented Jimmy Baeck, an Australian who plays haunting slide guitar as well as sax and accordion. On bass guitar is Phnom Penh music shop owner and record producer James Mao Sokleap, from Cambodia.
"What I love about Krom is they seem to be doing something other Cambodian bands/musicians aren't," said Coles. "Cambodia is unique. It sadly had a whole generation of musicians wiped out by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, but until Krom I'd only heard musicians trying to resurrect or adapt what there had been before Pol Pot."
Krom will be playing three shows in Bangkok, tonight at the Hansar Bangkok hotel, tomorrow night at the Toot Yung Art Center and on Saturday night at the Overground Bar and Café.
