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The Gathering featuring Belle and Sebastian

IF Wes Anderson made music, it'd probably sound like Belle and Sebastian. Both artists' works have a retro-futuristic feel - it looks/sounds like it came from the past but yet strangely nobody has seen/heard it before. It's no coincidence both are Twee favourites and local Belle and Sebastian fans have two things to look forward to.

The Scottish sextet's ninth studio album, Girls in Peacetime Like to Dance, is set for release early next week and they will return to Singapore in February to headline The Gathering, a new music festival at Fort Canning Green.

The last time they played here was at the Esplanade in 2010, a gig which guitarist-bassist Bobby Kildea, the only Irish member of the group, remembers well. "It was a fantastic theatre and we met the fans after that to sign some stuff; (but) this one is going to be outdoors so it'll be quite nice and different," says the 42-year-old over the telephone from Glasgow. Like their last two works, The Life Pursuit (2006) and Write About Love (2010), the new album was also recorded in America though this time they've moved production from LA…