About The Khmer Fusion Project

The Khmer Fusion Project is the brainchild of four young jazz musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area and the Artistic Coordinator of Cambodian Living Arts, Charley Todd. Parker Barnes, Eli Carlton-Pearson, Beau Sievers, and Ben Lerer (The Khmer Fusion Project) traveled to Cambodia with Charley Todd and CLA to study the country's rich but endangered musical tradition. During this trip, the musicians made one of few attempts to fuse the challenging and beautiful sounds of Cambodian traditional music with the concepts of jazz.

Their album was created using both Cambodian and western instruments and incorporates Cambodian traditional pieces as well as original compositions and arrangements by the four Jazz musicians and their Cambodian collaborators. In addition, the album serves as a source of income and inspiration for the Cambodian masters—many of whom live in slum and squatter communities despite their priceless knowledge—as well as being a demonstration that Cambodia still retains some of the most moving living arts in the world today.

The Khmer Fusion Project is:

• Eli Carlton-Pearson: Guitarist and composer. Studied tro ouh with Him Sarium.
• Parker Barnes: Bassist and composer. Studied tro khmer with Yun Thera.
• Beau Sievers: Drummer and composer. Studied khloy with Yim Chanti.
• Ben Lerer: Banjoist and composer. Studied Chapei with Kong Nai.

Cambodian Living Arts was created in 1998 by Arn Chorn-Pond, a Cambodian refugee and peace speaker from Lowell Massachusetts, to preserve and promote the Khmer arts, especially music. Since then the organization has shown impressive growth, now supporting around 20 masters of traditional music and dance, helping to organize opportunities for the masters to teach and perform in order to spread their talents and ensure the survival of their knowledge.