This is a past event
Ethnographic Film Series
Hanoi Eclipse: The Music of Dai Lam Linh follows the challenges faced by the groundbreaking and controversial Vietnamese band Dai Lam Linh, while rehearsing and performing in their hometown of Hanoi. It shows how the band came together to create a unique form of popular music, which is both international in outlook and rooted in Vietnamese traditions and aesthetics. Followed by scandal at every turn for their experimental sound and their use of sexually explicit lyrics, the band have dared to flout taboos and fight for their creative freedom. Dai Lam Linh was established by the male composer, Dai, an ex-soldier who fought in the Second Indochina War (known as the Vietnam War), and two female singers, Lam and Linh.
The film explores how Dai overcame the trauma of war by writing songs to honour the memory of the war dead and how the singers Lam and Linh embarked on an inner journey to discover their extraordinary voices. With vivid footage of the band working in the city of Hanoi, the film documents the process of recording Dai Lam Linh's debut album in 2009 and features an album-launch concert in the prestigious Hanoi Opera House.
The Director, Barley Norton is a senior lecturer in the music department at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the author of the monograph Songs for the Spirits: Music and Mediums in Modern Vietnam (University of Illinois Press, 2009), and co-editor of volume Music and Protest in 1968 (Cambridge University Press, 2013), which won the American Musicology Society's 2014 Ruth A. Solie Award
- Hosted by
- The Elphinstone Institute
- Venue
- MacRobert Building
- Contact
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Barley Norton, the director of the film will be in attendance.
No booking required
Free event, all welcome