Into the wild.

Rasmee Wayrana is one of the most original artists not just in the Thai scene, celebrating traditional morlum music and mixing it with blues and West African rhythms.

Coming from the Nam Yuen district in northeastern Thailand, she grew up listening to her father’s Khmer folk band, and at some point she moved from enjoying to joining herself.

Then came art studies at Chiang Mai University, local jazz clubs, and finally she met the right people who further opened up her ears and soul, and in 2016 we heard her beautiful debut album “Isan Soul“.

Currently, she’s working on her upcoming second album called “Arom”, and we’ve been recently getting the first takes from it. A few weeks ago came the eponymous track, and a bit earlier a video “The Beauty of Loneliness” (ความงามของความเหงา), which apparently is also her thesis project for her cultural arts studies.

A captivating, repetitive chant is accompanied by a video directed by Siriphathra Sriboonrod, both beautiful and dramatic – just like Rasmee’s music has always been.

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Rasmee on Facebook.

Photo: Nattanich Chanaritichai