Each Morning of the World #06
Southeast Asia PhoNographic Mornings #04/20
Moken village ~ island of Koh Phayam ~ Thailand
«Three Moken Vignettes»
Greg Simmons
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Three Moken Vignettes was composed from recordings made in and around the Moken village on the island of Koh Phayam, Thailand. The Moken (aka ‘Sea Gypsies’) are a semi-nomadic race that traditionally lived in small houseboats called ‘kabang’, sailing between the islands of the Andaman Sea and along the coasts of Myanmar and Thailand. In recent years, well-intentioned authorities have moved the Moken on to land-based communities where they face considerable challenges in adaptation and assimilation. With few land-based skills and little concept of money, they are, essentially, fish out of water.
By interspersing village sounds and Moken voices with sounds captured from the surrounding beaches and mangroves, Three Moken Vignettes aims to evoke the Moken’s current situation and their longing for the sea. The third vignette features a recording of a contemporary Moken song in which a large cooking pot is used to play the rhythm - a practical choice for people who formerly spent most of their lives at sea on small houseboats.
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Greg Simmons
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Greg Simmons is a writer, educator, traveler and sound engineer with a passion for recording endangered music. Since 2004 he has taken over 100 people on his educational sound recording expeditions through India, Nepal, Tibet, Borneo, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia (Bali) and beyond. He is an expert at leading groups of sound engineers, audio students, musicians and adventurers through these fascinating cultures and terrains, and has acquired specialized skills and techniques for recording the many types of music found there.
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www.soundexpeditions.com
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P.S. To help Greg to to record, film and disseminate the endangered music of the Moken ‘Sea Gypsies’ of the Andaman Sea :
www.pozible.com/profile/greg-simmons?fbclid=IwAR1QeamSunZANaRVAIvwY2Dq-V904orEF1JM9EdIGnMun-_PYSl8FJp8H0s