In Christopher Adler’s virtuoso hands, the evening made the case for the versatility of an instrument with charms that transcend its limitations.
— Michael Barndt for Third Coast Digest
The khaen is a bamboo free-reed mouth organ from Laos and Northeast Thailand, where it is considered to be the predominant traditional musical instrument and symbolic of Lao ethnic identity. I’ve been composing and performing new music for the khaen for thirty years, and championing this beautiful folk instrument in the international concert scene.
New Music for Khaen
I compose solo and ensemble works for the khaen that build on the foundation of traditional techniques and musical principles and extend into the contemporary idiom. And since 2003, I have invited other composers to write new music for the instrument. This music is featured in my ongoing CD series New music for khaen which now includes two releases. Landscape Traces: New music for khaen, volume two (2023) was named one of the top 100 releases of 2023 by critic Ted Gioia, and Triangulations: New music for khaen, volume one (2020) was called “dazzling” by Record Geijyutsu.
A complete list of these works and available recordings is on the repertoire page. I have written about my process of learning the tradition, creating these works, and situating these practices within a broader ethics of cross-cultural composition in a 2007 article “Reflections on Cross-Cultural Composition”, in Arcana II: Musicians on Music, edited by John Zorn.
For more performances, see the New Musical Geographies page and this Youtube playlist of my khaen performances.
Collaborations
Sädesärla is my folk fusion duo with violinist/violist/vocalist Batya MacAdam-Somer. Our repertoire includes arrangements of traditional and modern Swedish folk music, Thai compositions, popular songs, and my original compositions.
Gunther’s Grass is a collaboration with Marcelo Radulovich (hurdy-gurdy, electronics, production) and Scott Walton (contrabass, piano). Our recordings, featuring guest artists including Charles Curtis, Jennifer Bewerse, Nathan Hubbard, and others, are multilayed and microtonal acoustic dronescapes crafted into intricate compositions through Radulovich’s studio production. Our recordings are on Bandcamp, including Ur, Bastille Day and Other Lullabies, and Never in the Future That Dawned Earlier On.
More cross-cultural collaborations are featured on Episode #88 of the The World Fusion Show, hosted by Derrik Jordan, released on November 6, 2020. One additional piece may be heard on Sampler #8.
Background
The khaen (pronounced “can”) is related to other Asian free-reed mouth organs, such as the Chinese sheng, Japanese sho, and Korean saenghwang. It is also played by some of the upland and minority ethnic groups in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Learn more about the khaen tradition in this short article for the Center for World Music.
I began researching the traditional musics of Thailand in 1994, after encountering them at the Smithsonian American Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. The instruments on which I have concentrated are the khaen and the ranaat ek, the principle xylophone of the Thai classical tradition. I studied khaen with Molam Ratri Srivilai in Khon Kaen, Northeast Thailand and Jarernchai Chonpairot in Mahasarakham University, and ranaat ek with Ajarn Panya Roongruang. I also studied music at Wat Thai, D.C. in Washington D.C. I have taught Thai music at the Thai Buddhist Temple of San Diego, and have been a Visiting Professor at Mahasarakham University in Northeast Thailand.
