A timbrally-rich fusion of struck metal, wood, porcelain, and glass defines Vivian Fung’s(Un)Wandering Souls, a three-minute piece for percussion quartet written as a response to composer Him Sophy and film director Rithy Panh’s 2017 multimedia work, Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia.
Commissioned by Cambodian Living Arts and Metropolis Ensemble, (Un)Wandering Souls is one of a series of “variations” on Him Sophy and Rithy Panh’s Requiem, which offers a path to healing for survivors of genocide through a blend of Cambodian and Western music traditions. In Vivian Fung’s virtuosic treatment of the melody from the last scene, Sandbox Percussion’s tight grooves underscore, accompany, and punctuate the video edited by Rithy Panh.