The Field of Heritage is one of the most outstanding musical concerts of the Monsoon International Music Festival 2023, combining visual art with music to depict the present-day ethnic communities in the north west of Việt Nam through a contemporary lens.

Music producer Quốc Trung and electroacoustic composer Xinh Xô perform at The Field of Heritage concert. — Photo courtesy of Thanh Việt Production.

The Field of Heritage is organised by Thanh Việt Production, founded by renowned Vietnamese composer and music producer Quốc Trung, and The Cryptic, a Scottish art house that has won numerous international awards.

The project is supported by the British Council as part of the UK/Việt Nam Session 2023, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.  

Trung and The Cryptic's founder, Cathie Boyd, worked as the project's creative directors and co-producers.

The concert was performed to the public on Monday, featuring musicians and visual artists from the UK and Việt Nam.

“We want to tell the story of Vietnamese ethnic people in remote areas moving to cities, leaving behind their villages and roots,” Trung said.

The project immerses the audience in a journey from mountain to city, portraying ethnic individuals nostalgic for their homeland, highlighting their distance to origins and ecological imbalances in the Northwest mountainous area.

Xinh Xô, a Vietnamese-American electroacoustic composer and improviser, joined the project to tell the two-chapter story through electroacoustic music.

Trung depicted the tranquil villages through music in the first part, while Xô captured the hustle and bustle of urban life in the second.

Two artists from The Cryptic, digital artist/VJ Veronica Petukhov and installation designer Heather Lander, recreated the stunning mountainous landscape and the lovely ethnic people that they took photographs during their field trip.

The Field of Heritage brought to the audience the symphony of visual art and electroacoustic music. — Photo courtesy of Thanh Việt Production.

Veronica and Heather also featured the busyness of Vietnamese city life, drawing a contrast between the two chapters of the concert. 

Lighting and visual technology were also used to its fullest potential in order to combine music, sound, and visual effects.

The Field of Heritage fused Western electronic music with traditional folk elements such as folk songs, local literature and languages, to recreate the essence of Vietnamese folk melodies. 

“Three years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 breakout, Xô and I came up with the idea to exploit traditional musical materials in the Northwest region of Vietnam in a contemporary approach,” Trung said.

However, it was not until a field trip to meet artists from The Cryptic to that this idea began to take shape.

The Field of Heritage creates the best conditions for artistic collaboration between Việt Nam and the UK and provides avenues for public introduction and promotion of the two countries' shared cultural heritage.

Artists in Việt Nam and the UK have the chance to learn more about the aesthetic and cultural traditions of other nations.

After the Monsoon Music Festival 2023 in Việt Nam, the concert will be performed in Glasgow, Scotland. — VNS