Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan (Zomba Prison Project, Tinariwen, Hanoi Masters) returns to Southeast Asia to record unheralded, traditional-based musicians from Cambodia, all of whom are survivors of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. The result is heartbreaking, inspiring and sublime. Brennan writes: There is an inherent disconnection of logic amongst Westerners that claim a culture like Cambodia, who speak a tone-language— where the meaning of many otherwise identical words is dependent on the pitch with which they are spoken— are not musical by nature. And, prejudice’s self-destructiveness is nowhere more apparent than in the common underestimation of an entire racial group as “passive,” particularly one with such a history of upheaval, perseverance, and resistance. Khmer Rouge Survivors "They Will Kill You, If You Cry" is a welcome introduction to an embattled musical tradition and an emotionally stirring followup to Brennan's previous recordings from Southeast Asia, the highly-accalimed Glitterbeat album: Hanoi Masters "War is a Wound, Peace is a Scar" (2015).
