“Arts for Smiles” Painting & Exhibition Week in the South of Hoi An

Every year typically has a few defining moments, but the past nine months, affected by the coronavirus pandemic have contained so many world-changing, paradigm-shifting developments that it’s getting hard to believe we’re not in a simulation that’s running every possible scenario at once. With a pandemic still raging, waves of social change swelling around the

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Coming Home Again

In 1974 Thanh Lan was at the height of her career in Saigon, now 45 years later she returns to the city to relive her glory days A voice has returned to Saigon that has been absent for a long time and is once again home. First returning to Saigon in 2017 after an absence

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The First Generation

It wasn’t always this way Meandering streets and alleyways of Bui Vien Walking Street, tourists and backpackers might be left with the impression that electronic dance music (EDM) has, for some time, been a staple of the nightlife scene in Saigon. The ubiquitous cacophony of commercial dance music and LED-pulsed night clubs draws in travelers from around the world, each competing to lure locals and foreigners alike.

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Forgotten Voices

A revival of Saigon’s golden age of music It might be Dance Club Arcan’s unique interior decoration and it’s oddly powerful soundproofing that always makes it feel like another world when you walk up to the venue from the quiet, otherwise unassuming homey Binh Thanh neighborhood it’s nested within. The night Saigon Sound Revival played and the club’s massive sliding front glass door opened, releasing

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Frequency and Depth

Meet the man building his own sound diffuser panels for better listening In Thu Duc District in Ho Chi Minh City, accountant Pham Khac Tuong is turning discarded wood into one-of-a-kind, handmade sound diffuser panels worth thousands of dollars. Used by professional musicians or the most discerning music lover, a sound diffuser is an acoustic

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In Harmony

Building cross-nationality bonds through music and singing Born out of desire to deliver a platform that enabled Vietnamese locals and foreign expats to create music together, the International Choir and Orchestra of Ho Chi Minh City (ICOHCMC, icohcmc.com) was established in 1996. The man behind it all, Graham Sutcliffe, who was the-then cultural attaché to

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Sounds of the Wild

A showcase of live alternative music by artists for artists Locally trapped wildlife started with the idea that Ho Chi Minh City has always had a vibrant metal scene, a vibrant hip-hop scene; it’s always had a coming-up experimental scene, and we found ourselves in the place and time where we wanted to make song-based

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Turning The Tables

Homegrown Vietnamese DJs are stepping up to the international stage thanks to a DJ contest called Mix Us Happy Six months ago, 20-year- old Duc Hoang started learning how to DJ for the first time as a hobby, a nice change of pace from his work as a public relations student. Last weekend, he performed under his stage name Dazed P playing for

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TNX for Listening

With a little bit of Trap and a little bit of R&B, German-Vietnamese singer Linh TNX will enter the New Year with a bang and a beat When she walks into a room, Linh TNX is nearly impossible to miss. Laughing jovially, hoop earrings jangling and patent red boots gleaming, her energy spills onto every

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Become A Fan

Some of the best live rock music in Saigon is made by the band Ly Le Quyen If you’ve gone out looking for live rock music in Ho Chi Minh City you’ve probably come across the band Ly Le Quyen (www.facebook.com/lylequyens), or as they say it in English because of phonetic similarities, Little Wings. If

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