Tattoo Colour, an indie-pop outfit from Khon Kaen on the Smallroom label, have built one of the largest fan bases in the country over the last 10 years. Now they’re ready for their first full orchestral treatment.

The Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra boasts 90 local and foreign musicians. In its first 12 seasons, the TPO has consistently impressed audiences with excellent performances – no fewer than 70 concerts per year – with soloists and conductors from around the world.

Thanaphon Setaphram, conducting the Mahidol shows, aims to bring a new dynamic to orchestral music. He earned the orchestra further acclaim with last year’s concerts “TPO at the Movies” and “Legends and Fantasies”.

The highlight will be a new arrangement of Tattoo Colour’s greatest hits by Col Prateep Suphanrojn, composer in residence and resident conductor, whose most notable work giving traditional Thai music orchestral arrangements.

Seats cost Bt800 to Bt2,500 at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com and (02) 262 3456.

Learn more at http://www.ThailandPhil.com.

Until February 28, book a stay at one of its recommended accommodations around Thailand and you get a chance to win one of 25 pairs of Bt5,000 concert tickets, one of eight VIP passes to the band’s press conference on March 16, or one of five autographed concert posters.

You have to book via http://www.Agoda.com/EXO and use the promo code “AGODAEXO”.

Once you’ve secured a seat for the show billed as “Exo Planet #4 The ElyXiOn”, Agoda can also help you find a place to stay overnight near Impact Arena.

Beige Poshtel is 3.6 kilometres from the arena, a trendy budget hostel styled to look like a Manhattan loft. http://www.Agoda.com/beige-poshtels/hotel/bangkok-th.html

Rooftop Room, 2.2km from Impact in Koh Kret, is an apartment building with great city views and hotel-like amenities. http://www.Agoda.com/rooftop-room/hotel/all/bangkok-th.html

Buddy Oriental Riverside Hotel, 5km out on the Chao Phraya River, offers Exo fans great vibes as well as rest and relaxation. http://www.Agoda.com/buddy-oriental-riverside-hotel/hotel/bangkok-th.html

M Sotel Impact, 1.6km from the arena, is perfect if you also want to tour Bangkok. http://www.Agoda.com/m-sotel-impact-bangkok/hotel/bangkok-th.html

Ibis Bangkok Impact is just half a kilometres from the stage, a bright and stylish place fitted with modern design elements and multiple amenities, plus free shuttles to the arena. http://www.Agoda.com/ibis-bangkok-impact/hotel/bangkok-th.html

Wayha Hostel, 4km away in a residential neighbourhood, terrific if you want a homey vibe. http://www.Agoda.com/wayha-hostel-don-mueang-airport_2/hotel/bangkok-th.html.

Indecent Noise is a producer and engineer from Warsaw, Poland who turns technology to his benefit by using a laptop and midi controllers with Ableton Live setup, making his sets special and unique.

With his recent exploration of more various styles of trance, he demonstrates that he is limited to one genre. He has played countless club gigs across every continent and has also had the privilege of performing at major festivals including Tomorrowland, EDC Las Vegas and EDC Orlando.

As well as being an individual artist, Indecent Noise is also the brains and the main man behind Mental Asylum Records. Since its inception in 2012, the label has been the home for everything dark, twisted and up-tempo in Trance. The record label has seen not only many releases from Indecent Noise himself but has also features original material and remixes from John Askew, Mark Sherry, Lostly, RAM, Jordan Suckley and Allan Morrow.

Tickets costing Bt600 including one drink are available online at http://www.Ticketmelon.com/event/indecentnoise and at the door for Bt700, also including one drink.

For more information, visit Facebook.com/events/147639572612104/

Best known for his rugged guitar rock with Queens of the Stone Age, Josh Homme unexpectedly found a new creative freedom when he composed the score for the thriller “In the Fade”.

The German movie about neo-Nazi violence, which won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, is named after a 2000 song by Queens of the Stone Age. Director Fatih Akin is a fan of the California rockers and approached Homme to tell him that he had been listening to the band as he wrote the script.

Homme, who at the time was mixing the band’s last album “Villains,” was surprised by the proposal but agreed – and wound up delighted with the chance to release more experimental music.

The rocker said he had pulled out of projects in the past when too many people got involved. But on “In the Fade”, he realised that Akin was giving him full control, even telling him, “‘I am not worried about the music. I know it is going to be great.’”

“I was very relieved,” Homme says. “I felt that it was a movie made passionately and under the control of Fatih.”

Diane Kruger, who won the best actress award at Cannes for the movie, had made the original suggestion that Akin contact Homme. Kruger in the film plays a native German who seeks answers about the killings of her Turkish-born husband and son.

“I was so pleased it wasn’t an American-style blockbuster movie because in America everything ends on everyone living happily ever after. It took a very honest look at one woman’s pain, and also Diane Kruger was so good,” Homme says.

“I am not sure if Fatih realised how contemporary this could be. It is almost a shame that the subject is so contemporary.”

Homme was obliged to write the score in less than a week. He maintains a hectic schedule and frequently works as a producer and collaborator, notably for punk legend Iggy Pop. Homme is also a member of Eagles of Death Metal, although he was not present when the group’s concert was attacked in the bloody 2015 siege of Paris.

Working out of the celebrated Rancho de la Luna studio in the California desert, Homme spoke remotely with Akin and felt he had a green light to pursue fresh directions.

“You know, people believe, ‘Well, you play rock ‘n’ roll – that’s all you can do.’ I’ve heard this before, you know. This was a chance because Fatih said you can create whatever you think is right,” Homme explains.

Homme decided to use “instruments that are not really instruments.” Among them is a 200-litre oil drum outside the studio and heartbeats from his son’s sonogram – which dramatised the journey of Kruger’s character Katja.

“It’s all inside her, so I tried to use biorhythms, heartbeats and things that represent stress inside the body so all the music in the movie represents the all-internal struggle,” he says.

The score, while also bringing in Queens of the Stone Age rock, relies heavily on strings which create an ominous feeling to match the plot.

Homme doubted he would have enjoyed so much freedom with a major movie.

“In a way, the bigger the budget, the worse off I would be,” he laughs.

He met Akin only after “In the Fade” was completed – because the director presented it at the film festival in Palm Springs, California, where Homme’s family lives. He invited Akin for a drink afterwards in Los Angeles, where Homme spends most of his time.

“It was very strange because it was a really full circle and my family went to the screening,” he says.

Burin Boonvisut, who long reigned as Thailand’s “king of disco”, slipped back into the media “spotlight” after a seven-year absence last week with a surprise comeback – featuring new single, a new sound, a new label and plans for a world tour.

“Spotlight” is the title of the single just released on Muzik Move Records and it packs a fresh sound for Burin, which he calls “electro-soul”.

“I was always associated with the sound of synthesisers, which became popular in the 1980s,” he says. “It made my music at the time sound weird and modern.

“My favourite band was Zapp & Roger with their funk and boogie in the ’80s, and their frontman, Roger Troutman, popularised the talkbox, which directs an instrument’s sound into the singer’s mouth through a plastic tube attached to the microphone. I love that sound!

“I have an album nearly finished – just waiting for the mixing and mastering – but in the meantime this single shows what it will be like.

“We went about the recording process completely differently. I used to have all sorts of instruments, including brass and strings, but now that I’m getting older, I think ‘less is more’ is better suited to me. I need to simplify.

“So I’ve come up with the scent of music of the ’80s. I call this sound ‘electro-soul’. That was a transition time, when people were into disco with electronics, but the computer still hadn’t been born, so the music was still all analogue.

“I actually searched for the right kind of synthesiser to use on the album, one that sounded like that era. And I’ve used a reel-to-reel recorder, which lends softness and sounds more real.”

Burin played “Spotlight” for the press at Route 66 on RCA and had some snippets from the accompanying video. I was surprised to see foreign musicians playing along with Thais Chanagun “Atom” Ratanaudom and electro-pop specialist Cyndi Seui. Nathan East, Eric Ferguson and Bernie Grundman are all in the mix.

“Cyndi and I are musically similar – soul, funk, boogie and lounge – and I’ve known Atom for years, going back to before he made his own album. I wanted his tender voice in my band and we toured together. He’s also the songwriter.

“My bassist, Nathan East, has played with Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Daft Punk. He and I were both Yamaha brand ambassadors and we met when he was doing a workshop in Thailand. He’d never heard Thais play soul, funk and disco and found it really interesting.”

Burin says he was pleased to have four black musicians in the studio with him “because soul music came from black musicians and I really needed to find the heart of soul.

“So I have a wizard at mixing and mastering, Eric Ferguson, who’s done three albums with me and has worked with Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen and Jack Johnson and on the ‘La La Land’ film soundtrack.

“Then there’s Bernie Grundman, who worked on my favourite album – Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’, the best-selling album in history. I saw the list of musicians on that album and contacted him to help me. Bernie was the master engineer on Michael Jackson’s albums. He’s over 70 now and leaves the mixing and mastering to his team. I sent a clip to Bernie and he agreed to do it.”

The album, due out next year, will have 10 tracks, both with and without vocals, Burin says.

“I love instrumentals – it’s like telling a story, like in a film. My previous albums featured instrumental intros and outros, and listening to the whole album was like watching a movie full of changing emotions.”

Burin says he’s not bothering with English on the album. He’s counting on the new sound to make it a hit.

“Thais are quick at picking up new things and appreciating them, so I think electro-soul is an interesting alternative.

“Frank Mitty shot the music video, He’s worked on fashion commercials for Gucci, Adidas and Nike. His work is so strange! Fortunately, he was working in Hong Kong when I got in touch and he flew to Bangkok to make the video.”

Burin and his band, the Soulsmith, are planning a US tour at the end of September that will take them to New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. They’ll then head to Australia (Melbourne and Sydney) and finally to Britain.

“I’ve performed overseas before, but this time it will be a stronger show, with my production in terms of lighting and visuals, as well as my music. I’ve never seen really big visual shows, but I loved James Brown’s concerts in the late 1960s and early ’70s, as well as Stevie Wonder and Jamiroquai.”

A specialist in rock, electronic and house, he is the owner of Kids Records Foundation, the first charity-oriented independent music label which donates all earnings to Unicef for disadvantaged children.

Find out more and book a table by calling (082) 308 3246 and (095) 248 3897.

Going to the dogs

Insanity Nightclub on Sukhumvit Soi 11 is throwing its Chinese New Year party, “The Great Wall”, on Friday night from 10 till late. Hong Kong-based DJ Ricky Stone, who has been ranked on the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs list for four consecutive years, takes charge of the sounds alongside DJs QQ and ARYUE from China.

For information and table reservation, call (082) 731 8885.

A foretaste of Dropzone

Taking place on Friday at Mustache Bar on the Ratchadapisek strip, DZ001 – the official pre-party for the upcoming Dropzone Festival 2018 – will feature DJ, producer and label owner Daniel Sanchez, who has played a wealth of prestigious festivals including Awakenings, Welcome to the Future, and A Day at the Park. He’ll be spinning from 11pm to 4.30am.

Find out more at (02) 274 5855.

The Sun rises again

Rock band The Sun returns to the stage of Indoor Stadium in Hua Mark on April 6 for what’s being billed as the “Legendary Rock Concert”. The rockers will be revisiting a string of their hits from the albums “Khon Mee Fai”, “Suea Sing Krathing Raed” and “Thanon Phra Arthit”.

Tickets costing from Bt500 to Bt3,000 are on sale now at http://www.allticket.com and all branches of 7Eleven.

Remembering the Holocaust

The Siam Philharmonic, international soloists, and the Siam Orpheus Choir will join forces under the baton of Somtow Sucharitkul for a performance of English composer Michael Tippet’s oratorio, “A Child of Our Time” at the Thailand Cultural Centre on February 19 at 8pm.

Tickets costing Bt500, Bt1,000 and Bt2,000 are available at Thai Ticket Major counters and online at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

Inside a giant igloo in a snowy Norwegian village, the sound of a horn rings out, warming the mood of a freezing audience, huddled together in minus 24 Celsius.

But the four musicians performing are even colder: the instruments they are playing are all made of ice.

The xylophone, claves and wind instruments have been painstakingly carved from ice blocks extracted from a frozen lake, and are now part of a finger-numbing performance at the 13th Ice Music Festival in the mountain village of Finse.

The problem is, the longer the musicians play, the more the instruments start to disintegrate.

It is not an easy task “to perform on instruments that are melting while you play them,” says percussionist Terje Isungset, also the founder of the festival.

Wearing thick wool gloves, he blows warm air into his ice-sculpted horn, illuminated under blue and turquoise lights.

Next to him, a singer with an angelic voice covers her mouth with a scarf to stay warm, while a bass player removes his gloves so he can pull the strings on his ice-made instrument.

The setting of the festival, 195 kilometres west of Oslo, is not for anyone sensitive to a shivering climate.

Held over the first weekend in February inside an igloo built solely of ice, dozens of people wearing clothing fit to survive freezing mountain weather sit on snow benches while cheering and wrapping their arms around each other.

As the night grows older, a band member blows into a long ice wind instrument shaped like an Australian didgeridoo, vibrating across the venue.

“It’s a fine line between art and madness,” Emile Holba, a UK-based photographer and crew member, says, the laughter evident in his voice.

“Things can go wrong, instruments can break… the audience likes the purity of it,” he adds.

The festival has previously been held in Geilo, a ski resort in the central mountain region of Norway.

But organisers say the weather there has become milder, making it difficult to build ice venues and harder to prevent the instruments from melting.

“This winter… the ice was really slushy and difficult to deal with,” Isungset says.

“It’s the first time I have seen ice like this.”

In search of guaranteed freezing temperatures, the festival moved further west to Finse, a 30-minute train ride from Geilo.

Surrounded by mountains framing a glacier, the area was used to create the snow planet “Hoth” in the opening scene of Star Wars movie “The Empire Strikes Back”.

The village was also the base for Antarctic expedition training by British explorer Ernest Shackleton (18741922) and his Norwegian counterpart Fridtjof Nansen (18611930).

“It’s kind of otherworldly… there is magic there,” says Holba.

Preparing the festival is no simple task. It took organisers a week to build the igloo and the ice needed to be sourced and collected by a crew of more than 20 people.

Large chunks were removed from a nearby lake and the musicians used chainsaws, hammers and chisels to carefully sculpt the instruments.

“It’s just music… and trying to create something out of nearly nothing,” Isungset says.

After the festival, some of the instruments do become nearly nothing again, the ice dripping away back into the earth.

But a few of the ice-creations do survive.

If deemed to be in good enough shape, the instruments are stored inside a freezer, waiting in frozen isolation, to be used again the following year.

Underworld is best known for its track “Born Slippy”, which was chosen as the theme music for cult movie “Trainspotting”. Praewapower (Yellow Fang) opens. For more information and table reservations, call (02) 392 7750.

Wonderland on fire

DJ and producer duo Jetfire, featuring Itay Kalderon and Zohar Bartov, take the stage tonight at Wonderland on Klong Lam Chiak Road in Bangkok’s Bueng Kum district.

The duo made their name with “Guest List” featuring Alvaro and have performed at such major music festival as Tomorrowland. Entry is Bt400.

Find out how to get there and make a reservation by calling (094) 459 8742.

Folding in the melody

Swiss-born DJ, producer and record label owner David Keno spins his signature beats with a distinct melodic touch at Glow on Sukhumvit Soi 23 tonight from 10.30. A master of sampled melody, he folds and coaxes unexpected sounds into rhythmic accompaniment.

Entry is Bt400. Book your table by calling (086) 614 3355.

Insanity shows the love

B Jones, a finalist in EMI Music’s “She Can DJ” contest, performs at the “B My Valentines” party being thrown by Insanity Nightclub on Sukhumvit Soi 11 next Wednesday from 10 until late. Jones, who is part of the famous Pacha Ibiza World Tour roster, will be supported by Oskar & Boayake22.

Find out more at (082) 731 8885.

A-rocking and a-reeling

Popular music festival “Rock and Roll Come Back” for a fourth year to Chom In Farm near Kra Seaw Dam in Suphan Buri’s Dan Chang district tomorrow night and this year features more than 20 artists and bands including Hugo, Carabao, Sib Lor, Zerohero, Brown Flying, Chanudom and Southern Boys.

Tickets are Bt700 at Eventpop and Facebook.com/ Rockandrollcomebackthailand.

“I hate to get into this publicly, but Michael stole a lot of stuff. He stole a lot of songs,” Jones said in an interview full of eyebrow-raising comments published Tuesday by Vulture, the culture site of New York magazine.

“The notes don’t lie, man. He was as Machiavellian as they come,” the 84-year-old music veteran said.

He specifically cited “Billie Jean” — a signature song off the Jones-produced “Thriller,” the top-selling album of all times.

Jones suggested similarities between the song and disco queen Donna Summer’s “State of Independence,” which was also produced by Jones and released several months earlier in 1982.

Few listeners would immediately associate the two songs, although both open and are built on unusually lengthy synthesized bass lines.

Jones also said Jackson was “greedy” and should have given partial writing credit to keyboardist Greg Phillinganes for his song “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.”

Jones’ allegations run against prevailing public perceptions of Jackson, who died in 2009 and is often viewed as a tortured soul with little financial acumen as he amassed wealth.

The producer voiced sympathy over Jackson’s personal issues, saying he had raised concern to the singer over his plastic surgery and blamed abuse by the singer’s father for the King of Pop’s poor self-image.

Jones has remained active as an octogenarian, recently launching the Qwest TV video streaming service for jazz, but has also made a stream of headline-grabbing comments with a generous sprinkling of profanity.

In a recent interview with GQ magazine, he said he had 22 girlfriends around the world, spoke 26 languages and had undergone a cutting-edge treatment in Sweden to help him live to 110.

The 76-year-old, who went from a conscience of the 1960s generation to a pioneer of world music fusion, will open the farewell tour of North America and Europe on May 16 in Vancouver.

Simon, a native New Yorker whose career first took off in Britain, will say goodbye on July 15 in London’s Hyde Park, where he played a career-spanning concert in 2012 that he turned into a live album.

Simon said he had been thinking more seriously about retirement after the death of his backup band’s longtime guitarist, Vincent N’guini, in December.

“Mostly, though, I feel the travel and time away from my wife and family takes a toll that detracts from the joy of playing,” said Simon, who is married to fellow folk singer Edie Brickell, his third wife, with whom he has three children.

“I’d like to leave with a big Thank You to the many folks around the world who’ve come out to watch me play over the last 50 years,” he said in a written message to fans.

Simon said he was still open to performing after his farewell tour but only occasional concerts to support causes dear to him, such as the environment.

– Decades of experimentation –

Simon, originally in a duo with Art Garfunkel, became one of the voices of the 1960s generation with his musically peaceful yet politically engaged songwriting.

Simon and Garfunkel released a string of classic hits, including “Bridge over Troubled Water” and “Mrs. Robinson.”

Later, as a solo artist, he helped shape the course of world music with “Graceland,” the 1986 album often regarded as his masterpiece.

“Graceland” took Simon to apartheid-era South Africa after he became fascinated by hearing a tape of “Township Jive” dance music, which he blended with zydeco rhythms from Louisiana and his own personal pop songwriting.

The album won the Grammy for Album of the Year and made stars out of choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, whose rich voices provided the harmonies.

Simon has not given up on experimentation. His last album, 2016’s “Stranger to Stranger,” incorporated the unique instruments of 20th century musicologist Harry Partch, who designed microtonal scales — meaning smaller intervals than those usually used in Western music.

Simon openly mulled retirement in 2016 before playing two shows at the Forest Hills stadium, near the area where he grew up in the New York borough of Queens.

“Showbiz doesn’t hold any interest for me,” Simon told The New York Times at the time, adding: “It’s an act of courage to let go.”

But he returned soon afterward, singing at the Democratic National Convention that nominated Hillary Clinton, touring Europe and later playing across the United States as part of an effort to promote education and research on preserving the biodiversity of life on Earth.

New York is noticeably absent among the announced dates on the farewell tour, which includes two dates at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.