Killing them softly with her voice

Ouch Savy is the female protégé of chapei master Kong Nay but in Meta House, last weekend, she showed that she was not bound by tradition when she collaborated with Norwegian pianist Ingolv Haaland and bassist Torbjorn Tveit. Sonny Inbaraj Krishnan relished the night where Khmer influences were mixed with contemporary and experimental sounds.

As Ouch Savy takes to the stage in Meta House, she tells the small audience gathered there, “I’m a Cambodian traditional singer and I also play the chapei.

“What we’re doing tonight is all new to me,” she says as she turns towards her two Norwegian collaborators – pianist Ingolv Haaland and six-string bassist Torbjorn Tveit.

Savy then belts out ‘Tears No More’, a Haaland composition from the album ‘Asian Flow’, and mesmerizes the audience with her voice – leaving them nonplussed for a few seconds.

“[Ouch Savy] has insane potential, there are so many venues she can do if she wants to. We are looking into the next step. She can collaborate with anybody, she is spontaneous, the way she works in the studio, she just gets up to the microphone and does it,” Haaland tells Joe Wrigley, of the popular weekly gig guide Leng Pleng, before the Meta House concert.

Savy’s talent, indeed, knows no bounds and she’s also technically gifted.

“She has perfect intonation in her voice and we’ve recorded songs with just one take in the studio. And it was perfect!” says Haaland, when he tells the audience of his experiences of working with Savy on the ‘Asian Flow’ and ‘Journey’ albums.

Savy, Haaland, and Tevit also performed with backing tracks recorded with a string orchestra in Bratislava.

“The backing tracks are a compromise – I want people to experience the full sound [of the orchestra],” Haaland tells Leng Pleng before the concert.

Haaland is an associate professor in popular music at the University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway and has been working for over a decade in Southeast Asia and The Middle East with various musical projects and recordings. He is an arranger, composer and pianist and has released five albums in his own name.

Haaland also worked as a freelance musician and musical director in Scandinavia for 16 years, working with artists such as Sarah Brightman, and a variety of symphony orchestras and theaters in Norway.

“I compose music with an Asian touch, which makes it a fusion of European and Asian music. I lived in Cambodia for a year in 2006 and have been back ever since to do musical projects and concerts,” Haaland tells Good Times2.

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