VA - Don't Think I've Forgotten Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll (2015)

40 years ago: April 17, 1975, Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge and Cambodian rock and roll was no more. Its star musicians were targeted and killed, record collections were destroyed, clubs were closed, and Western-style music-making, dancing, and clothes were outlawed. The deaths of approximately two million Cambodians and the horrors of the Killing Fields have been well-documented; add to this John Pirozzi’s fascinating tale of Cambodia’s vibrant pop music scene, beginning in the 1950s and ‘60s, influenced by France’s Johnny Hallyday and Britain’s Cliff Richard and the Shadows. The filmmaker has assembled rare archival footage, punctuating it with telling interviews with the few surviving musicians. Cambodian culture has long been synonymous with a love for the arts. Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll pays homage to the country’s rock legends who paid for their creativity with their lives.

Through the eyes, words and songs of its popular music stars of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll examines and unravels Cambodia’s recent tragic past. Dust-to-Digital is excited to release the soundtrack to such an important film. Compiled by the film’s director, the album is very cinematic in nature. The sequencing and newly-remastered audio transport the listener through the rock and roll history of Cambodia in a similar fashion as John Pirozzi’s documentary film. It is both entertaining and essential to hear so many tracks that are available outside of Cambodia for the very first time.