‘Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia,’ Symphonic Work About Khmer Rouge Genocide, Released as Album

variety.com:

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor“Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia,” a symphonic work by composer Him Sophy and the first major such piece to address the Khmer Rouge genocide in the country, recently was released on Entertain Impact label.Sophy, himself a Khmer Rouge survivor, places the musical ritual of a Bangsokol – a traditional Khmer ceremony that accompanies Cambodian Buddhist funeral rites – within the form of a Western requiem.“When I composed the requiem,” Sophy says, “I relived the feelings I had during the Khmer Rouge times.

It was Hell on Earth. The requiem needs to be experienced around the world so that everyone understands that tragedy is a shared experience.”According to the announcement, as an act of cultural renewal, “Bangsokol” speaks to the role of the arts as a means for healing and reconciliation and seeks to inspire a new generation of artistic expression.

Sophy worked in collaboration with librettist Trent Walker, and the work was recorded at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, New York with the Metropolis Ensemble and the Taipei Philharmonic Chamber Choir, with Metropolis Ensemble Artistic Director Andrew Cyr conducting.

It was premiered in 2017 at BAM in New York and other cultural institutions around the world, as a multi-disciplinary stage production combining music, film, movement, and voice; Rithy Panh, also a survivor of the genocide, provided the visuals.The act of “Bangsokol” within the Buddhist funeral ritual represents the removal of a cloth, which signifies transmigration into the next life, where spirits of the dead find rest and ultimate rebirth.