(9 Nov 2025) Thousands of music archives collected in Southeast Asia during and after European colonization have remained inaccessible in European institutions for far too long. Today, these field recordings can finally be listened to and consulted in Open Access, available in several Southeast Asian languages.
This milestone marks an important step toward the decolonization of Southeast Asian sound archives preserved in Europe (France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom).
We are delighted to present two new digital platforms supported by Europe (JPI–Cultural Heritage 2021): Pratinada and Penanian.
Pratinada, a musical database for Southeast Asia, provides access to 7,304 sound recordings from across Southeast Asia, encompassing primarily field recordings alongside selected radio broadcasts and published materials. Drawn from collections safeguarded within European archives, these recordings span more than a century of sonic history (1900–2023).
Penanian, “the Place of Song”- Toraja Ritual Music provides access to ancient Toraja ritual music and poetry— including audio recordings, transcriptions, analyses, and contextual materials — documented by French ethnomusicologist, Dana Rappoport (CNRS) between 1991 and 2001.
Find out more here.
