Now the Bus is stalled. The music stopped again. No shows every night for the tourists in Phnom Penh. No road trips on the Bus. No traditional instrument demonstrations in the schools.

Like the Khmer Rouge, Covid-19 is especially hard on artists who perform live for people, which is the entire purpose of the Khmer Magic Music Bus. Take the artists to the people and put on a show.

But how?

It takes a certain kind of artist to be willing to try out new venues, new formats, whole new ways of performing. Very few have been willing to try virtual venues, VR as a stage where the world can come together.

John Legend has. Reggie Watts. A few others. And the Khmer Magic Music Bus.

Arn and Seyma drove into AltspaceVR in July to put on four shows that were something like a dress rehearsal. There was a lot to figure out technically and creatively. The sound wasn’t perfect. Neither one of them knew how to move around easily in avatar form.

None of that stopped them. About 20–30 people attended each show, mostly people from North America and Europe. It went surprisingly well.

Now the sound is better. The shows will keep getting better as we learn to use virtual venues not just to reproduce the live music experience, as we are doing now — but to create new worlds for performers to inspire us in ways we can barely imagine.

We will build a Virtual Cambodia. People will spawn in at the edge of a jungle and they will heat music being played faintly in the distance. They will find their way to the clearing where singers and dancers are blending ancient and modern instruments and creating something new and beautiful.

But there are a few more steps along the way.

The musicians are with us in the new series as avatars on a virtual stage in a virtual theater, with large images projected behind them, showing what they look like, showing what Cambodia looks like. Real people are somewhere in Phnom Penh, singing and playing instruments, their sounds mixed and sent over the Internet into the AltspaceVR app.

The series celebrates Master Artists who survived and the ways the music is kept alive in Cambodia today, with the first show featuring sounds and stories of legendary Master Kong Nai and the Chapei, a United Nations World Heritage Instrument.

Arn Chorn-Pond doesn’t work from a script. When he shares his memories and tells about the life of a blind Master Artist, the words come straight from his heart to the audience.

Later in the show, Arn describes the programs for young people to learn chapei today and introduces us to Kong Gea, an enthusiastic student.

All four shows are different, different Masters, different young people. Different songs from Seyma Thorn and the Khmer Magic Music Bus Band.

The first show is October 22 and they are FREE. If you think it’s a good idea — some musicians in Cambodia bringing their show to VR on their own — you can buy a Ticket as a Donation even if you can’t come.

We’re hoping lots-of-people-doing-a-little Fundraising can work for the Arts.

Source: https://arvrjourney.com/taking-the-bus-into-vr-24794c7711e7?source=rss—-d01820283d6d—4