Konnekt 8 preserves Laotian traditional music

His latest mission brought him to former French colony Democratic Republic of Laos, where he spent five weeks recording traditional Laotian music in the Royal Ballet Theatre of Luang Prabang. The Republic of Laos is situated in Southeast Asia bordered by Myanmar (Burma) and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west.

Jimmy tells us about the goal of his long stay in Laos, and the technical issues he has been facing:

"I had been kindly invited by the director of the Royal Ballet Theatre, M. Chandra Vongsaravanh, to record traditional and popular Laotian music, in order to keep a trace and testimony of these cultural aspects, before they eternally disappear. Until now, very few recordings of this local music have been made, and as a result, neither the population nor the intelligentsia does really know about their own traditional music."

Extreme recording conditions
The main challenge for me was to find a set-up light and compact enough to bring along. But at the same time, I needed the quality usually required for acoustic and classical music recordings. The main difficulty with this type of recordings is to be able to constantly check levels and dynamics, because even though they can change very drastically, you definitely don’t want to apply compression during the takes.



My very simple recording setup is made of a PC laptop running Sony Sound Forge, a stereo pair of Schoeps microphones going straight into the TC Electronic Konnekt 8 preamps. I monitor with a pair of beyerdynamic headphones. I have been extremely satisfied with the Konnekt 8, not only because the mic preamps are clean, precise and silent, but also because they give me that high gain and headroom which is required for acoustic takes. It performed amazingly under difficult circumstances (heat and moisture, ed.), and don’t even get me started on its ridiculously low price.

15th century music captured by Konnekt 8
There are two traditional instruments which were a bit difficult to handle: the Shing, a heavy pair of bronze cymbals, which sort of sounds like a buzzing rhythmic drone, though you could compare it to the Indian Tempura. And there is the Kong Ta, made of a pair of drums marking the tempo with a syncopation. In fact, I was lucky to record these fantastic musicians who were experienced and very focused with their playing technique.

During five weeks, I had been recording 350 minutes of music, which are split into seventy different pieces. I must say that we were lucky to still find witnesses like this amazing orchestra conductor, M. Manivong Khathiyarath, who was the last conductor and choreographer at the former royal palace; despite his old age of 82, he could still remember and deliver interpretation of some musical pieces aging from the 15th century!

We have preserved several genres and styles, like: Ike, Kab Thoum Luang Prabang, the popular music, and Ramayana, the royal Laotian music. I am proud to affirm that we have now given birth to seven official CDs which are precious testimonies of local classical music.

About Jean-Marie "Jimmy" Knapp Jimmy owns a studio located close to Paris, France, and also freelances as a video editor. When not traveling, he is used to handling sound aspects for world music acts (such as Steve Shehan and Reza Derakshani, Hadouk Trio, Ahmad El Sawy, Trio Chemirani, Jamey Haddad, Peter Herbert, Baly Othmani, to name a few…) and to engineer live shows for these musicians. He has been awarded by France Inter and France Info radios for his sound documentaries and creations. If you wish to read Jimmy’s blog relating his two months in Asia: http://essendilen.blogspot.com/