Cambodia & Memory: Restoring and remastering over 5,000 songs from the ‘golden age’
- Editorial team
- Aug 4
- 4 min read
Driven by their passion for films and songs from the pre-Khmer Rouge period—cultural treasures of their Khmer heritage—Preah Sorya, a group of young people working to document this golden age, recently published the results of their project. The group has archived more than 5,000 songs, including a wide range of traditional Khmer music.
Spanning nearly two decades, the Khmer ‘golden age’ was a period of unprecedented creativity in Cambodian music and cinema.
"5,520 songs from the golden age are preserved in the Preah Soriya archives. During their 12-year mission to document the legacy of Khmer films and songs from the golden age, project leaders collected recordings from four main sources: cassettes, 12‘ and 6’ vinyl records, and restored digital video clips," according to the official Preah Soriya website.
"The team restored and remastered the recordings and preserved them safely. The songs date from 1955 to 17 April 1975. They feature the voices of almost all the great artists of the Khmer golden age, a total of 72 singers and 10 orchestras.
They cover a wide variety of genres, including traditional love songs, pop hits, patriotic songs, Mohaori ensembles and even children's songs. There are also a number of film and opera pieces."
Yeang Vandy, project manager, explains:
"We were also fortunate enough to meet some of the few remaining actresses from that era, including Dy Saveth, Vireak Dara, Duong Dara — known as Nop Nem — and Saksi Sbong. Among the songs, we discovered recordings that have not been heard by the public for over 40 years. ‘
’The vast majority of the Kingdom's artists were killed during the Khmer Rouge era, but we found a few survivors. When we approached them for interviews, most refused our calls without explanation and asked not to be identified. We think this is probably because they don't want to dwell on the bitter memories of their lives under Pol Pot's cruel regime," he adds.
The group's mission is to research, archive and preserve films, songs and stories of Khmer dignitaries and members of the royal family from before the Khmer Rouge regime.
Vandy, as team leader, is a permanent member of the group. Virak Varany, deputy leader, has been working on this project for 12 years and is also the author of a series of essays on the subject. Together with four or five other people, they form the core of the project. They use their own funds, as well as support from philanthropists who love the arts.
"The project was initially launched by Virak Varany and a team of four to five people in 2010. I joined them in 2013 after meeting them at the Zaman School (now Paragon). That same year, we organised a big event to raise awareness. In early 2014, we discovered seven original film reels in Kampong Cham, which we were able to purchase and preserve,” says Vandy.
“Later, we learned from friends in the organisation that there was a wealth of Khmer documentary footage from the period before 1975 in Thailand. When we found out, we devoted as much time – and money – as we could to finding these images,” he adds.
He also points out that, despite the exceptional size of the archived library, the team was not yet ready to give up its activities:
“During the health crisis, our team couldn’t risk working together — we are a private research group for young people, with no support in terms of health insurance or medical budget. We had to be cautious and wait for the situation to improve. We are grateful to our more than 200,000 YouTube subscribers, many of whom have donated to the project through ABA, Wing or Acleda. Whether it's 1,000 riels or more, all funds are used to continue our research."
“That said, if Preah Soriya’s work to preserve this important part of the Kingdom’s cultural heritage had the support and recognition of more private companies or the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, we would be extremely grateful, and we could preserve even more exceptional documents from this golden age,” he adds.
On 16 July, Preah Soriya revealed the discovery of 45 film songs performed by Ros Sereysothea, who was murdered by the Khmer Rouge. Varany talks about the significance of this discovery:
"Today, there are no fewer than 1,500 songs by Ros Sereysothea, and they continue to be popular with young and old alike. Many artists and a large number of music production companies have covered her songs and remixed them. During our research, we discovered 45 recordings she had made for popular films of the time that had not been heard or attributed to Ros Sereysothea for over 40 years.
He explains that the recordings were found thanks to archive footage and identified through fans' memories.
They include hits such as ‘Baksey Chak Mek,’ from the 1968 film of the same name, ‘Tumnounh Preah Neang Amphay Phat,’ which appeared in the popular film ‘Chhan Moeung,’ and ‘Dav Roeung Dav Roy,’ from the film of the same name.
Pann Rethea with our partner The Phnom Penh Post
Comments