Notes

‘១ សីហា (August 1st).’ The Cambodian hip-hop artist VannDa has a new album on the way, and he starts it off with a blistering track on the border conflicts between his country and Thailand, which have raged and ebbed since, believe it or not, the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1904. Recently, in July, the conflict flared again, before the two countries announced a ceasefire on August 1. You hear pain in VannDa’s voice here about “losing my brothers to a war we never chose.”  VannDa burst onto the scene in 2021 in the post-Covid collaboration “Time to Rise” with the aging Cambodian lute star and singer, Master Kong Nay. The video was filmed inside Phnom Penh’s National Museum of Cambodia, showcasing the building’s distinctive architecture and featuring both VannDa and Master Kong Nay in traditional Khmer clothing.

—Brendan Hasenstab