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6 Hartford Business Journal • August 20, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com S itting at his electronic mixing console inside The Hartford Studio downtown, Rattanak "RT" Ouk is in full B-boy splendor, clad in black nearly head to toe, as he runs through names of hip- hop, soul and pop artists for whom he has engineered and recorded tracks. Rappers Kendrick Lamar, Kid Ink and Lil Wayne; DJ Khaled; and soul singer Anthony Hamilton, to name just a few that Ouk (rhymes with "oak") said he has worked for or with in his 15 years as an independent audio engineer. Ouk and his father five years ago found and outfitted the 450-square-foot Hartford Studio above Burger King, at 11 Asylum St., with mixing and mastering computers and hard drives, microphones and other hardware. He was able to stay in his adopted home state, not consid- ered a music mecca, because digital compression and other file-sharing tech- nologies let Ouk and his clients instantly share raw and finished music tracks planetwide via the internet. "I love this,'' the second-generation musician and recording engineer said recently in his dimly lit studio. "I plan on doing this the rest of my life.'' Today, thanks to Ouk's and The Hart- ford Studio's growing reputation for high-quality pre- and post-production audio engineering, he is expanding into more recording-office space in the building, adding 1,200 square feet. The extra room will accommodate Ouk, who is using his skills to nurture a new generation of aspiring Con- necticut musicians. But Ouk and his family, now all naturalized citizens, would not be in America, much less Connecticut, if his father, Paul Ouk, mother Rat- tana Duong, who met as refugees, and his older half siblings nearly four decades ago had not fled Cambodia's oppressive Pol Pot regime that killed or tortured tens of thousands of their countrymen. Born in a Thai refugee camp in the early '80s, Ouk says he's grateful for the opportunities he and his family have attained in America. Catholic Charities, with a New Haven physician's sponsor- ship, resettled his family, first in New Haven, then Hartford before they even- tually landed in West Hartford. They are among an estimated 600 residents of Cambodian ancestry in Greater Hartford, says Theavny Kuoch, executive director of Khmer Health Ad- vocates. The West Hartford nonprofit provides mental-health counseling and other support services to re- settled refugees, many of whom suffer post-traumatic stress disorder tied to abuses in their home country. "Most of them were victims of torture,'' said Kuoch, herself a torture survivor. "Their survival gives them great strength … to try to do things to take care of their families." RT's father, Paul Ouk, for a time worked for Khmer Health, lending his talents as a computer engineer and musician. Paul Ouk, a one-time gui- tarist in a band covering Beatles' and Rolling Stones' tracks, plus traditional Cambodian folk songs, set up a record- Sound Choice Cambodian emigres make Hartford their canvas for music, hope Rattanak "RT" Ouk (left) founder/co-owner of The Hartford Studio, with Hartford native and poet/rapper/singer Shanell Sharpe and Bloomfield musician-songwriter Corey Cooper. Rattanak "RT" Ouk (left) and Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar (right) collaborated in producing tracks for Lamar's newest project. HBJ PHOTO | BILL MORGAN PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED