Someone told us that they sometimes let cows roam free in the fields around Angkor Wat. The reason being, there was a good chance it would set off a landmine. This story and another about tourists being able to fire artillery guns at live animals seemed true. Granted, I never actually saw either occur, but with a gruesome historical backdrop of killing fields and a school turned torture chamber I have a hard time thinking its only a myth.
Cambodia had stories like these, but then suddenly stories that intertwined and brought the tone back up to a major key. Stories of the survivors and the people that make it a wonderfully inviting and peaceful place.
This field recording is from a path along the perimeter of Angkor Wat. It’s a songs I captured by a band of landmine victims. Providing that I can restore some of the parts of the tape, this will be the first in a series of sounds from Cambodia.
