Last February I had the opportunity to be the guest host of the famous open mic at The Harbour in Siem Reap, a night with many highlights. At a certain point of the night the stage was somewhat taken over by an astonishing singer who improvised a couple of songs with the band. This was my introduction to Cecile Hinas. Last weekend I was in Siem Reap again, and met up with her to discuss music, DJing and Cambodia.
A former teacher from the Normandy region of France, later an artist with small underground projects in Marseilles, Cecile had an opportunity to come to Cambodia seven years ago and jumped at it. “Coming here was a childhood dream come true,” she explains. “When I was young I had books with pictures of Cambodia – the forests, the temples, the monks. Then I discovered such beautiful people – it’s really a pleasure to live here. We are lucky, the people are amazing.”
Cecile finds Cambodia provides many latent artists with a great freedom of expression. “There is a lot of potential with music and creation. A part of me I consider to be an artist, and I feel very free. I can find liberty in my head. I go several times a week to the temples, in the mornings, and I find a lot of inspiration and vibrations. I feel free to compose, to make music, and many other artistic things.”
Part of that freedom is to improvise. “Improvisation is a big part of my heart and my energy. I’m frustrated by bands and musicians that only play covers; I love going to the open mics to improvise and create. I like to challenge – when you don’t know the musicians and we start with nothing to create a movement for a few minutes.”
While searching for like-minded musicians, Cecile has plunged into digital composition. “I decided to create my own music because I couldn’t find people who wanted to create together. I starting composing on my computer, I started DJing, and now I’m sharing the music that I compose like a DJ.”
While there is some text involved, Cecile doesn’t see herself as a writer. “I try to write in English, it’s not easy to get the word ideas and the emotions to synchronise. I take samples from the radio, people speaking, and compose music behind it. When I compose the most important thing is to travel with the music through different parts of the world – samples from India, samples from drum’n’bass, everywhere. I’d love to try adding beats to music played on Khmer instruments.”
Bringing things together, an emotional articulation. “Like a painter will put some colours together.”
“When I was young I studied lyric singing – very operatic – but I smoked for a long time, until one year ago, so now there is only a little bit of that voice left, and I am more interested in composition. I had a wonderful teacher – she was totally crazy, a lot of character in the classical and operatic register, and she was a dancer also. She kept telling me you are not for this kind of music, you have to do more. So I followed her advice – she taught me to find freedom inside a very structured piece of music, and be yourself inside. Each time you are on the scene you have to be Alice in Wonderland, complete with big rabbits and big cats. And when I put my album on-line, my old teacher contacted me, 20 years later.”
The album, liquid, was released last week on Bandcamp.
“I think musicians and DJs should work more together. There’s often a tension between live music and DJing. But in the end it’s about music. There are musicians who are very good technicians but play without soul – in the same way some DJs really have soul, they put their soul into the mix, into the party. DJing is not just to push the buttons, there is skill in watching the audience and finding the best way to keep the vibe happy or deep or just fun.”
Cecile Hinas can be seen DJing at various spots in Siem Reap, and you can sample her work at Bandcamp, YouTube and Soundcloud.
