Selen Gulun Piano Performance

By: Olivia Harlow
Produced & Edited by: Olivia Harlow

Pianist, Selen Gulun—the first Turkish musician to perform in Cambodia—played at Doors last night, where she wowed the audience with her original jazz melodies.

The 43-year-old contemporary songwriter from Istanbul started playing the piano at age seven, dabbling in various genres and exploring compositional techniques ever since.
Though her educational background focused mainly on jazz and classical forms, she claims that her music is very improvisational and doesn’t necessarily fit into one label.

“I like to write every form of contemporary music,” said Ms. Gulun, who has worked with symphony orchestras in London, jazz bands in Mozambique and electronic groups in Austria. “I’m trying to use the language of the 21^st century really.”

However, according to Ms. Gulun, being a professional musician in the modern world isn’t always easy.“If you’re a musician, it’s a crazy life,” she said, adding that she’s dealt with a myriad of obstacles related to being a jazz-focused female composer. “Somehow though, you have this courage, just because you love it so much.”


© Olivia Harlow 2015  

Since 2006, she has released five albums, with “Answers” (2010) making #6 and “Baska” (2013) making #4 on top jazz charts in Tokyo just last year. 

An album that she recorded with Italian artists earlier this year is meant to release in 2016, along with her latest album titled “The Women’s Matinee”—a collaboration with three Turkey-based female musicians and various instrumental contributors, honoring the life of a dear musical friend who was raped and murdered earlier this year.

According to Ms. Gulun, women’s rights issues and a passion for international travel heavily influence the majority of her songs.

Thus far she has toured to 18 countries— including Mozambique, Japan, Serbia and Cambodia just this year—giving her the opportunity to work with various musicians across the globe and travel to far off places that intrigue her wanderlust spirit.

“That’s why I come here actually—my passion to come to Cambodia,” said Ms. Gulun, adding that she’s wanted to visit the “Kingdom of Wonder” since she was a little girl.
During her two-week visit to the country, Ms. Gulun said she hopes to meet local musicians and experience as much as possible.

“Quite frankly, I don’t know what is driving me here. That’s the excitement. I will find out!”

Ms. Gulun will play again tonight at Chinese House at 7:30, where she said she will most likely play various jazz standards and sing more than she did yesterday evening.

Puppet Show Links French Modernism With Cambodian Tradition

By: Olivia Harlow
Produced & Edited by: The Cambodia Daily

Handmade leather and paper puppets, 2 meters tall, crinkle their way across the stage, dancing in sync with the music to tell the tale of a boy with only one eye who cannot hear, and his twin sister, who has one ear but cannot see.

This will be the scene on stage at the Institut Francais in Phnom Penh on Saturday night, when French theater group Compagnie l’Aurore and Phnom Penh’s Kok Thlok artists’ association present the fruits of their first collaboration, a show that gives traditional Khmer shadow puppetry a modern French twist.

The production—“Un Oeil, Une Oreille” (“An Eye, An Ear”)—which premiered last week in Battambang City, is a story of separation and reunification, the story of two children, one of whom experiences the world only through sight, the other only through sound.

“It’s a mythology story about two children separated when they’re born and then trying to join all their life,” explained performance director Francois Dubois of Compagnie l’Aurore, which is based in the southern French town of La Reole. “At the end, they will succeed, but they will be different persons.”

Mr. Dubois’s production uses the contrast between the “ear” and the “eye” to meld auditory and visual elements, as well as an interplay between French and Cambodian influences. Taken as a whole, the show is a bid to modernize one of Cambodia’s oldest art forms, one that is struggling to find a foothold in a world of television soap operas and Facebook.

Sbek thom—a traditional form of Khmer puppetry dating back to the Angkorian era and recognized on Unesco’s list of intangible cultural heritage—uses flat, intricately carved leather figures to tell stories of ancient deities from behind illuminated white screens.

After first witnessing the Kok Thlok artists practice sbek thom in Phnom Penh four years ago, Mr. Dubois was inspired to play with the art form and integrate it into his own work.

To see the rest of the story, see: https://www.cambodiadaily.com/culture/shadow-spectacle-102754/