“Pelleas und Melisande” is one of several compositions regarded as the last gasp of Romanticism while simultaneously suggesting a future path for music.

The immediate inspiration for “Pelleas und Melisande” was Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1892 drama, which gave rise to numerous other musical treatments, most notably the incidental scores by Faure and Sibelius and Debussy’s opera.

The programme also includes Johannes Brahms’s “Piano Concerto No 1, Op 15” be performed by pianist Poom Prommachart plus Thai traditional music.

Poom, the first Shigeru Kawai Artist in Thailand, is regarded as one of the most accomplished Thai pianists of today and his performances are highly considered for their lyrical intensity and virtuosity.

A graduate of the Royal College of Music (RCM), London, he earned the prestigious International Artist Diploma in 2014 and a master’s degree in Performance in 2013 and was awarded the most prestigious Tagore Gold Medal for his outstanding career and great contribution to RCM, which was presented to him by HRH Prince of Wales in 2014.

Tickets are from Bt400 to Bt1,500 to Bt400 at Thai Ticket Major counters and online atwww.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

It was a long climb up the international ladder for Japanese rock band One OK Rock but now that the lads have almost reached the pinnacle of worldwide fame, they have no intention of slipping back down.

Named Best International Band at last year’s inaugural Rock Sound Awards by British rock magazine Rock Sound, the rockers have been busy conquering the world for the past year and are kicking off 2018 by touring in Asia.

One OK Rock, which features bassist Ryota Kohama, vocalist Takahiro “Taka” Moriuchi, guitarist Toru Yamashita and drummer Tomoya Kanki, is considered the most famous rock band to ever come out of Japan after X Japan and Luna Sea.

Set up by Yamashita back in 2005 while he was still at school, One OK Rock released its first single, “Naihishinsho” early in 2007 and followed up with a debut album “Zeitakubyo” later that year. Before long they had a firm fan base at home, packing out concert venues in Sendai, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Tokyo in 2010 and headlining a series of music festivals the following year.

But it was international recognition they craved and in 2015, the J-rock quartet achieved a long-held dream of recording their first English-language album, “35xxxv”, in the US with producer John Feldmann, the man behind many successful artists including The Veronicas, Good Charlotte, Panic! at the Disco, Boys Like Girls, 5 Seconds of Summer, Blink-182, Sleeping With Sirens, and Set It Off.

In 2016, the band signed to Fueled by Ramen and released the Japanese version of “Ambitions” on local label A-Sketch on January 11 and the English-version album on the American label two days later, collaborating with Avril Lavigne on “Listen” and 5 Seconds of Summer on “Take What You Want”.

One OK Rock toured across North America and Europe in the second half of last year to promote the album and is kicking off its “Ambitions Asia Tour 2018” with the Bangkok gig, which takes place at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani on January 18. The show, which will be the band’s third concert in the Thai capital, is expected to be their biggest so far in this country and a sellout, just like their two previous gigs at Thunder Dome, Muang Thong Thani in 2016 and at Muang Thai GMM Live House at CentralWorld in 2013.

“We were really surprised on our first visit to Thailand to find out how many fans we already had in Bangkok. They were an amazing bunch, really showing their emotions. It was amazing,” recalls frontman Taka.

“We are really excited about coming back and will do our best for our Thai fans.”

The band is popular all over Asia and the new tour is also taking in Singapore, Shanghai, Taipei, Taiwan, Pasay in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Seoul before heading back to Japan, where the band will play two nights apiece in Osaka, Tokyo and Fukuoka.

One OK Rock’s vocalist Taka agreed to have a chat with The Nation via email while the band was closing out its European tour last month. Excerpts:

Did you make any changes to your sound after signing with Fueled by Ramen?

Yeah, we did. We were introduced to various producers while we were recording and that made it easier to set the direction of our music!

How did you want “Ambitions” to move on from “35xxxv”?

We wanted to widen our world view and also expand the possibilities of rock music. I think we’ve achieved that on our latest album.

How did the collaboration with other artists come about and what were they like to work with?

We either toured with these people, or met them while we were on tour. Working with them was fantastic! I’ve been a big fan of Avril for a long time and I feel so honoured to have been able to collaborate with her.

What’s with the name “Ambitions”?

To tell people to have ambition. With ambition comes hope! As for our ambition, there are still a lot of people who have not heard of One OK Rock yet and we want to be able to show them what we can do.

And what’s with the yellow album cover?

Yellow is the colour of hope. It ties in with the theme for the album: hope, ambition and singing together in the chorus.

What is the significance of the tracks “We Are” and “I Was King”?

“I Was King” talks about my experiences when I was younger. As for “We Are”, we wrote the song for 18-year-old. We wanted to reach out to those who are struggling and let them know that their future will be bright if they put faith in themselves and work towards making things work.

How do you get ready for a concert?

We huddle and pump ourselves up before every show!

Have you ever faced any unexpected incidents during a show? And how do you deal with uncomfortable situations?

During the Japan leg of the current “Ambitions” tour, Toru actually fell down a hole! (laughs) We were all really worried but we carried on with the show!”

What are your plans after the world tour?

We’re already working on our next album and it’s definitely going to be something completely different.

After 10 years in business, what would you say are the biggest changes in One OK Rock?

I think the biggest change is that some members have started their own families.

Is there anything else in the next year or so that One OK Rock really wants to do?

We must never forget the fact that there are still many people in this world who don’t know about One OK Rock. That means there’s still a lot more we need to do and we want to show the charm of One OK Rock to many more people.

One OK Rock is known for their energetic and entertaining performances of rock songs. What is the most difficult thing you’ve had to face as a band?

As a band we’re having a blast so it’s all good! Joking aside, it’s really tough but at the same time, we would be nothing if we didn’t have this, so we’re thankful of the fact that we are able to make a living doing what we love best. That’s why we make sure to give it our all at every show.

While the band is going out and challenging the world, some of your fans are still yearning for your Japanese songs. How do you manage their expectations? How do you handle that?

Japanese is our native language but we admire the western sound. We have yet to achieve the western sound that we want – our “Ambitions” if you like –but once we reach that, we will start writing in Japanese again.

Blasting off in Bangkok

– One OK Rock’s “Ambitions Asia Tour 2018 Live in Bangkok” is being staged at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani, on January 18 starting at 8pm.

– Tickets cost from Bt2,500 to Bt4,500 at Thai Ticket Major counters. Call (02) 262 3456 or visit http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

– For more information, visit Facebook.com/avalonlive or Twitter: @OfficialAvalon.

Southern-style country-rock bands L Kor Hor, Kangkeng and Patthalung will perform at the Ruamphol Khon Tai Festival at Green Market on Kaset-Nawamint Road in Bangkok this Thursday night starting from 5pm. Get a pass for Bt600 (including one drink) or Bt399 (standing area) from http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com and (02) 262 3456.

Singing for the sick

Songs-for-life giants Carabao follow up Toon Bodyslam’s marathon run by holding the charity concert “Sattha Phuea Cheewit” at Impact Arena on January 20, with all proceeds going to 39 hospitals around the country. Seats cost from Bt1,500 to Bt5,000 at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com. Call (02) 262 3456.

Doowop with the Drifters

The Drifters, one of the great American doowop acts of all time, will bring their “Stand By Me Live” tour to Show DC’s Ultra Arena on January 19. This is the outfit founded by Clyde McPhatter that had Ben E King in its second incarnation, and all three incarnations formed the Drifters that were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Seats cost Bt1,000 to Bt2,000 at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

Rocking in the jailhouse

Elvis Presley is unlikely to be in the house when the Sala Chalermkrung Royal Theatre celebrates his birthday with a “King of Rock N’ Roll” concert on January 21, but Thailand’s best Elvis impersonators will be there to sing his hits. Jirasak Pinsuwan, Manuel Presley, Lek Presley, Wasu Saengsingkaew, Arthur Husen, Sattawat Tungkarat and Montree Teerakomen will be backed by the Chalermraj big band. Seats cost Bt700 and Bt1,000 at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com and (02) 262 3456.

Tale of tragedy in music

The play “Pelleas und Melisande” inspired no fewer than four musical masterworks. Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra and Brazilian conductor Ligia Amadio presents Arnold Schoenberg’s take on this “tragedy of adultery” at Prince Mahidol Hall, Mahidol University on January 12-13 at 7pm. Poom Prommachart returns to perform Brahms’ first major orchestral work, his Piano Concerto No 1. Tickets cost from Bt1,500 to Bt400 available at Thai Ticket Major (02) 262 3456 and visit http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

Music sales grew at a robust pace for a third straight year in the United States in 2017 as listeners kept flocking to streaming outlets, an industry monitor said Wednesday.

Analytical firm BuzzAngle Music said that consumption in the world’s largest music market jumped 12.8 per cent in 2017, well outpacing the 4.2- per-cent growth seen a year earlier.

On-demand streaming services led by Spotify are quickly replacing downloads on platforms such as iTunes, which shook up the music business a generation ago.

BuzzAngle Music found that nearly three times as many songs were streamed on an average 2017 day in the US – 1.67 billion – than the 563.7 million tracks that were downloaded over the entire year.

Audio streaming grew overall by more than 50 per cent in 2017 from the previous year.

In more good news for the industry, BuzzAngle Music said that 80 per cent of audio streams came through subscription sites, as the music business encourages listeners to pay monthly rates rather than seek out songs for free online.

The growth reflects a reversal of the long rut in music sales following the rise of the internet.

But not everyone is cheering, with many artists complaining that they are seeing little of the profit.

Wixen Music Publishing, which owns rights to songs by artists such as Neil Young and The Doors, last week filed a $1.6 billion suit against Spotify, arguing that the Swedish company failed to seek proper licenses in its rush to build its catalogue of 30 million songs.

And in a recent Twitter thread that drew wide attention among artists, Geoff Barrow of English trip-hop group Portishead said it was “almost impossible to make a living” through Spotify for musicians who do not figure out how to “work the system well.”

Spotify counters that it has provided a rare source of growth and helped bring new audiences to artists, who increasingly make their living off concerts rather than recordings.

Spotify faces a growing number of rivals including the streaming services of tech giants Apple and Amazon, as well as Paris-based Deezer and rapper JayZ’s Tidal.

While sales of full albums kept dropping in 2017, there was one big exception – vinyl.

Album sales on vinyl grew by 20 per cent, keeping up the revival of the classic format that has been embraced anew by hardcore fans and collectors.

Vinyl buyers disproportionately bought rock and older titles.

The top-selling vinyl title of the year was a soundtrack to the superhero film “Guardians of the Galaxy”, which was first released in 2014 and featured songs by music legends such as David Bowie and Marvin Gaye.

The taste of vinyl lovers was sharply different from mainstream choices. Pop superstar Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” was by far the top-selling album of 2017, selling nearly 1.9 million copies, according to BuzzAngle Music.

Swift maximised sales by keeping “Reputation” off streaming services for its first three weeks – an increasingly unusual commercial strategy that only stars with a dedicated fan base can pull off.

Sales of cassettes – which have also found a renewed following, in part for their kitsch appeal – more than doubled in 2017, but at fewer than 100,000 copies, the format remains miniscule in the overall market.

The US sales are in line with global trends. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry will release worldwide figures in the coming months.

The music industry magazine and chart-keeper, releasing its year-end calculations of concert receipts, said that Guns N’ Roses had surpassed former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters’ marathon 2010-13 “The Wall Live” tour.

U2 holds the record with $784 million earned on the Irish rockers’ extravagant, in-the-round “360” tour from 2009 to 2011.

In second and third places with just above $500 million each are The Rolling Stones for stadium concerts a decade ago and Coldplay for a global tour completed in November.

Guns N’ Roses, whose brash rock took the world by storm in the late 1980s, had been notorious for internal friction, with singer Axl Rose and guitarist Slash ending their collaboration in 1993 following a show in Buenos Aires.

After years of lucrative offers, the pair finally agreed to reunite for the 2016 Coachella festival in the California desert.

The reunion became a global stadium tour called “Not in This Lifetime” that has been repeatedly extended and, according to Billboard, has reached 4.3 million fans.

A fresh leg is scheduled for Europe this summer that will close on July 21 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The band is best known for hits such as “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”

The tour, however, does not include Izzy Stradlin, the rhythm guitarist and key songwriter for the band who said he refused as he believed the money would be unfairly divided among the bandmates.

Industry watchers expect big-name concert tours to become increasingly lucrative in the near future, with the number of festivals quickly growing and consolidation of promoters streamlining costs.

He was the first Asian to receive this honour.  Dieter Topp, president of KulturForum, presented the award at a packed concert which marked the 130th Anniversary of Thai-Japanese relations as well as the United Nationals Day of the Migrant.  The concert included Strauss’s Four Last Songs as well as an “epic” rendition of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with hundreds of performers from many different communities of Bangkok.

Topp cited Somtow’s achievements in a wide variety of artistic fields.  He especially commended DasJati, Somtow’s ongoing project to compose the “biggest stage work of all time” by adapting all ten of the final lives of the Buddha into an integrated work.

In his acceptance speech, Somtow pointed out that “There was a time when the west saw us as unformed, as pristine vessels ready to receive western culture as a divine gift.  But those days are over.  The west has come to  understand that our relationship is no longer only about what can learn; it is now equally about what we can teach.”  He added, “We have inherited many great forms of expression from western culture — among them film, television, and opera.  But these gifts are no longer shiny trinkets from another land.  They are our inheritance.  They belong to us, and we have new things to say about them.”

“We may now dare to show the audiences of the world who they are, because we have finally dared to understand who we are.”  He accepted the award in the name of Thailand and of all Thailand’s “great artists on whose shoulders I stand.”

The concert itself was, in the words of Michael Proudfoot, reviewer from London’s Opera magazine, “an amazing performance.  It is impossible to believe that the Siam Sinfonietta is a youth orchestra, so polished is their playing.”   Proudfoot compared Somtow’s reading of the symphony with the legendary Furtwängler’s interpretation from the first half of the twentieth century.

Performing Beethoven’s Ninth, known by the Japanese as Daiku, is a tradition in Japan now in its 99th year; this work is performed in every major metropolis in Japan during the month of December, and has come to symbolize the meeting of cultures, the reconciliation of enemies, and redemption through art.

Unveiling the lineup for the June 1-3 festival, Governors Ball said the two would launch a new act called Silk City, the name likely an allusion to a Philadelphia club where Diplo used to play.

The artists themselves did not immediately reveal more details but Diplo, in an interview last year with GQ, said he and Ronson were working on an album together based on their shared love of disco music.

Ronson, a Londoner who had his start in New York, has had a major behind-the-scenes impact on pop music as a producer for artists including Adele and Amy Winehouse.

He finally achieved stardom on his own with his infectious 2014 hit “Uptown Funk,” which featured vocals by Bruno Mars.

Diplo became known for his work with hip-hop globalist M.I.A. and has since recorded with a who’s who of top artists, notably freshening Justin Bieber’s sound with the tropical house beats of the Canadian singer’s latest album.

Diplo has also become a major live attraction with his groups Major Lazer and Jack U, the latter a collaboration with another electronic producer, Skrillex.

Governors Ball’s key headliner will be Eminem, who is returning to live performances after releasing his long-awaited “Revival” album last month.

Governors Ball marks only Eminem’s second show on the books for 2018 after the rap mega-star was also announced as a headliner in April at Coachella, the California festival that is among the world’s most lucrative and influential music events.

Also on the Governors Ball line-up will be garage rocker Jack White, rapper Travis Scott, Pharrell Williams’ hip-hop project N.E.R.D. and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, one of the key acts of New York’s indie rock scene in the 2000s.

Governors Ball, which takes place on Randall’s Island between Manhattan and Queens, was launched in 2011 but has faced growing competition as music festivals grow rapidly around North America.

Coachella’s promoters since 2016 have run their own festival, Panorama, later in the summer on the same site as Governors Ball.

Hall, who had been suffering from cancer, died Tuesday at his home near the legendary Fame Recording Studios he built in the riverside town of 14,000.

“We hope the band in Heaven is ready. If not, there’s going to be a problem,” his family said in a statement.

Hall turned his studio in a go-to hub for soul music, with distinctive horns and a steady rhythm section complementing the vocal powers of visiting singers.

The studio had its breakthrough when Hall licensed Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” recorded nearby, and labels soon were sending star talent to Fame to make their albums.

The studio recorded Etta James, Otis Redding, Little Richard, Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin, who recorded her early hits “I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You”) and “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” at Fame.

But the sessions with Franklin ended in disaster when Hall got into a fistfight with the diva’s then husband, Ted White, who demanded that the studio owner fire musicians for allegedly harassing his wife.

Atlantic Records pulled Franklin out and she recorded her classic “Respect” in New York, although she brought in musicians from Muscle Shoals.

Hall often marveled at how Muscle Shoals became internationally known. Musicians under Hall in 1969 founded the separate Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, where The Rolling Stones recorded parts of their acclaimed “Sticky Fingers” album.

Hall’s prominence in African American music was unexpected in Alabama, one of the most conservative US states whose governor George Wallace had vowed to preserve segregation forever.

“I’m one of them. I feel black,” Hall later told television host Larry King.

“I can tell you that immediately when black people are around me they feel very good about me,” he said.

Hall had grown up in grinding poverty, with his father working in a sawmill and his mother leaving to help run a brothel.

Hall, after quitting a factory job, became a fiddler and found his passion for country music, gradually earning a living as a songwriter and taking over the local studio.

He said that he found a natural connection between country and soul music, even though the genres were dominated by different races.

“Both country and soul songs often dealt with growing up dirt poor, trying to make life better, hopeless love,” he told the country magazine No Depression.

Coachella, which has turned into one of the world’s most lucrative and influential festivals since its debut in 1999, takes place in the desert of southern California over two successive weekends in April with identical lineups for each.

The festival — April 13-15 and April 20-22 — marks the first concert scheduled by Beyonce since the pop superstar had twins in June with her husband, rap mogul Jay-Z.

Beyonce’s appearance is not a surprise. She was due to headline Coachella last year but was replaced with Lady Gaga after Beyonce’s doctors advised her not to perform so late in her pregnancy. She promised at the time to come in 2018 instead.

Coachella, whose promoters are fond of splashy headliners, is also the first full concert on the books for Eminem since the top-selling rapper in history released his latest album, “Revival,” last month.

The Weeknd, the Toronto R&B singer whose profile has quickly grown in the past few years with hits such as “Can’t Feel My Face” and “I Feel It Coming,” has performed previously at Coachella but never as a headliner.

The Coachella announcement comes amid growing signs that traditional rock bands are losing their cultural dominance in the United States. Hip-hop for the first time made up the majority of nominations for Album of the Year in the latest Grammys.

Despite the headliners, Coachella at other set-times will feature plenty of rock acts, mostly with an indie bent, including The War on Drugs, alt-J, Haim and Portugal. The Man.

The festival will be the Coachella debut of French electronic icon Jean-Michel Jarre, whose extravagant light shows rank among the largest concerts in history but who toured the United States for the first time last year.

Other prominent performers include Talking Heads legend David Byrne, who has indicated he plans to release new music in 2018, and Cardi B, the New York rapper who scored a breakaway hit in 2017 with “Bodak Yellow.”

The 36-year-old singer and actor said that “Man in the Woods,” his fifth solo studio album, will come out on February 2 — two days before he headlines entertainment during the Super Bowl, generally the most watched television event of the year in the United States.

Timberlake unveiled the album with a short video on social media that, true to the album’s title, shows him walking reflectively in scenes of nature from a snowy forest to a sunny corn field.

“This album is really inspired by my son, my wife, my family, but — more so than any other album I’ve ever written — where I’m from,” Timberlake says in the video.

“And it’s personal.”

Timberlake — who had a son in 2015 with his wife, actress Jessica Biel — grew up near Memphis, Tennessee, one of the capitals of blues and soul music as well as rural-rooted country.

The video features snippets of acoustic guitar, hinting perhaps at a more somber sound for the album, but closes with Timberlake in the studio with all-star pop producer Pharrell Williams.

Timberlake, one of the top-selling artists of the 21st century both as a solo artist and with boy band NSYNC, rose to fame with an electronic pop sound before finding a new voice by bringing in R&B, notably on his 2006 album “FutureSex/LoveSounds.”

He last released full albums in 2013, putting out “The 20/20 Experience” and “The 20/20 Experience — 2 of 2” in quick succession.

Even without albums, Timberlake has kept putting out music, scoring a mega-hit in 2016 with “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” a giddy summer song that appeared in the animated film “Trolls.”

But Timberlake has focused increasingly on acting rather than music in the past several years, most recently starring as a bookish and seductive lifeguard in Woody Allen’s “Wonder Wheel.”