Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe

♬ Maiden! / ក្រមុំរើសប្ដី!

Pen Ram / ប៉ែន-រ៉ម – not her more well known sister Pen Ran (also seen as Pan Ron) / ប៉ែន រ៉ន as originally posted – was born in Battambang, Cambodia. Little is known of her personal history. Like many Cambodian musicians of the time, Pen Ran disappeared during the Khmer Rouge genocide.

Im Songserm (also seen Im Song Seum) / អ៊ឹម សុងសឺម was born in 1943 in Kampong Preah, Cambodia. He was discovered by Mey Thirith / ម៉ី-ធីរិទ្ធិ, an employee of the Ministry of Information and a recording artist in his own right, while still in secondary school. Im Song Seum died on March 16th of 1972 at the age of 29 reportedly of stomach cancer. He never saw the devastation of the Pol Pot years that followed a few years later.

If you would like to find out more about Cambodian Rock and Roll, you should check out John Pirozzi‘s film “Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll” or previous Cambodian posts.

Many thanks to Nate Hun of the Cambodian Vintage Music Archive for catching error in the original post. He has also sent the sheet music and lyrics for the song above. 

Catalog number ERP2 on Heng Heng Records Co. of France. A previous owner wrote the date 09/03/81 on the inside of the sleeve. Apparently, Heng Heng repressed many Khmer records for the Cambodian diaspora. This original single was released on Olympic around 1971.

The original was released on a record label called “Olympic” around 1971. There’s a typo originating from the the original record. It singer should be Pen Ram ប៉ែន-រ៉ម not Pen Ran. Pen Ram is the younger sister of Pen Ran and this often gets confused.

The Heng Heng bootlegs were pressed in France during the 80s in an effort to redistribute the music after suffering a great loss to the hands of the war genocide.

Comment by Nate December 29, 2022 @ 2:15 pm

Interesting – even the person who listed this on Discogs credited it to Pen Ran instead of Pen Ram (https://www.discogs.com/release/10456430-Pen-Ran-Im-Songserm-%E1%9E%81%E1%9E%98%E1%9E%A2%E1%9E%99%E1%9E%81%E1%9E%98). I wonder how many of the Pen Ram listings are incorrect and should be fixed?

Comment by hellsdonuthouse February 15, 2023 @ 2:21 pm

The record was originally listed as Ros Sereysothea before I changed it to Pen Ran before learning it was actually Pen Ram… I’ve been meaning to update the listing.

Comment by Radiodiffusion February 15, 2023 @ 3:56 pm