Traditional music is not entertainment.

Bringing GOm show to Ho Chi Minh City, the organizers accepted a lot of losses so that the city's audience could enjoy unique music from musical instruments made of ceramic, earth, and water.

The rowing boat will be brought to the GOm show stage - Photo: Organizing Committee

After two shows at the Hanoi Opera House on June 28 and 29, GOm show was brought to Ho Chi Minh City and performed at the Ho Chi Minh City Theater on July 19.

According to artist Dinh Anh Tuan - director and visual director of GOm show , bringing a crew of more than 30 people along with dozens of ceramic and clay musical instruments... to Ho Chi Minh City is very costly. But the crew still decided to do it because of the dream of bringing this art project to Ho Chi Minh City.

When earthenware jars, pots and pans become musical instruments

GOm show is a creative art project inspired by traditional Vietnamese ceramic culture. Combining indigenous music and a system of musical instruments made from ceramics and natural elements such as earth and water, GOm show opens up a world where sounds that have been hidden for generations come alive.

GOm show uses symbolic techniques with the narrator being a pottery wheel, the evocative sounds from musical instruments such as jars, pots, and clay pots... The show takes the audience through 10 chapters, telling stories of the land and people in traditional voices from many regions.

GOm show trailer

The chapters from Return, Time, Downstream to Finding Hani, Gom... are the unique voices of the M'nong, Tay, Lo Lo, Nung, Din, E De, Ha Nhi ethnic groups... using cultural materials to create a "multi-colored, one-soul Vietnam".

The Dan Do group was founded 12 years ago with a philosophy of creating from indigenous materials. The group has created circus, music, drama, jazz, visual arts... and now performs musical instruments made from pottery, earth, and water.

After years of working with bamboo and earth, the group turned to ceramics, creating unique sounds.

Special instruments include jar drums (with super bass sound), lang drums, clay drums (stringed instruments), ceramic gongs, jar bells, zither (made from a clay pot used to cook rice), and boat zither (a variation of the traditional zither)...

Audience praised the show for its sound, lighting and the artists' dedication - Photo: BTC

GOm show: 15 years for a dream

Mr. Nguyen Quang Su - creative director and curator of the project's performance space - said that when GOm's show was performed in Hanoi, many children and the elderly expressed their interest. Authentic music touches many different age groups.

Dinh Anh Tuan expressed: "The music at GOm show makes people very relaxed, but it is not necessarily not entertaining. We exploit folk music but in a new way, wanting to approach young people interested in culture, art, and indigenous materials of Vietnam.

Our process was not overnight. The Dan Do Group, our brothers, have been researching for 15 years, exploiting all the musical instruments from indigenous materials. All these creative musical instruments did not take just 6 months to achieve."

"We really want to perform in Ho Chi Minh City - artist Dinh Anh Tuan explained - Programs like this have their own position, their own audience, from international audiences, young people, children or the elderly, all really like it."

MI LY

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/am-nhac-truyen-thong-dau-phai-khong-giai-tri-20250720094642957.htm