[nonesuchrecords]

It was 25 years ago today: Sam Phillips’s Nonesuch debut album, Fan Dance, was released. On the haunting, T Bone Burnett–produced album, the singer-songwriter peels away pop ornamentation to reveal, as the Boston Globe says, “a stunning work of intimacy and emotional range ... Phillips digs deeply within to chart romantic yearning and spiritual fulfillment.” The 2020 vinyl edition was remastered and pressed on 180-gram vinyl, and comes in an old-school tip-on style jacket with booklet, limited and individually numbered. You can get it and hear it here.

[nonesuchrecords]

“He has summoned into being a region of musical experience that’s all his own,” Matthew Aucoin writes in his essay on fellow composer Dylan Mattingly in The New York Review of Books, “a welcoming, abundant, sun-drenched landscape that teems with tinkling, deliriously retuned pianos and raucous grooves that last long enough to offer a taste of infinity. A new album called The Wild Heart offers a slice ... of this Whitmanic artist’s fertile, dazzling world within the world.” You can read the article here.

[nonesuchrecords]

Ambrose Akinmusire and Mary Halvorson have released a video for “Prelude in the Ash,” the opening track to their new duo album, Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings. The video was made by Julia Schimautz from photography by Nicholas Albrecht.

[nonesuchrecords]

Natalie Merchant has shared two new tracks from the upcoming album Cabinet of Wonder—”The Queen of Hearts” and “Humpty Dumpty”—and videos for them. Cabinet of Wonder is a digital collection of songs and accompanying videos from the acclaimed singer-songwriter’s collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Children’s Theatre. The songs reimagine Mother Goose and her rhymes for a new generation of young children. You can pre-order the album and hear two previous tracks here.

[nonesuchrecords]

Here's Anthony Roth Costanzo's Klaus Nomi–inspired interpretation of “You Don’t Own Me," conducted by Dan Shlosberg, from his upcoming album Countertenor (also the title of his upcoming book from Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

[nonesuchrecords]

Punch Brothers celebrated the release of their new album, The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers, with a set at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island on Saturday. En route aboard the Newport Harbor Shuttle, the band gave fellow ferry passengers a sneak peek of its set with a performance of "New Book," the album's closing track.

[nonesuchrecords]

Celebrated singer Anthony Roth Costanzo's Nonesuch Records debut album, Countertenor, is due October 23. It is a companion to a book of the same name written by Costanzo, out October 27, from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Both are available to pre-order here.

On the album’s ten tracks, which feature an ensemble conducted by Dan Schlosberg, Costanzo delves into a wide-ranging survey of falsetto. The record comprises a world premiere recording of a new piece by Osvaldo Golijov; arias by Philip Glass, Mozart, Vivaldi, and Monteverdi; a traditional Hawaiian song; an early Baroque song by Dowland; a Renaissance ditty by Morley; the classic Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons tune “Walk Like a Man"; and a Klaus Nomi-inspired interpretation of John Madara and David White’s “You Don’t Own Me," which is out today.

You can pre-order Countertenor the book and CD and hear "You Don't Own Me" here.

[nonesuchrecords]

Makaya McCraven spoke with The Gig's Nate Chinen following the release of his four-EP collection Off the Record and ahead of his residency at the Village Vanguard in NYC this week. You can watch their conversation here.

[nonesuchrecords]

The Unsung Adventures of Punch Brothers, the seventh album from the Grammy-winning band, is out Friday! You can get it and hear it here.

Punch Brothers' first album comprising all instrumental tunes, as well as its first with fiddle player Brittany Haas, who joined the quintet in 2023, features eight new original compositions by the band plus three traditional songs they arranged. The album’s title is more than a play on words: without lyrics to guide the listener, these are stories, impressions, and emotions communicated entirely with strings through melody, harmony, rhythm, and a literary sense of musical structure. 

[nonesuchrecords]

Cécile McLorin Salvant has released the video for her performance of Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns," from her new album, With Every Breath I Take. The video was made by and stars drag artist X. You can watch it here. The album, Salvant's first with orchestra, features The Netherlands’ Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley performing timeless songs newly arranged by Darcy James Argue.

[nonesuchrecords]

Composer Donnacha Dennehy has released an excerpt from his Violin Concerto's second movement, performed by National Symphony Orchestra Ireland, conductor Ryan McAdams, and violinist Stephen Waarts, from the upcoming album Limina. The video, by Laura Sheeran, was made during the album's recording at National Concert Hall, Dublin.

The new album, due August 28, also includes the orchestra and McAdams performing Dennehy’s piano concerto Limina with pianist Eliza McCarthy.

[nonesuchrecords]

Pianist and composer Vijay Iyer stopped by for the Nonesuch Selects video series, in which artists visit the Nonesuch office, pick some of their favorite albums from the music library, and share a few words on their choices. He chose recordings by Ramnad Krishnan, Laurie Anderson, Julius Hemphill, Kronos Quartet, and Cécile McLorin Salvant, and from the Nonesuch Explorer Series.

Vijay Iyer's Nonesuch debut album, Fifteen, with Henry Threadgill and Dafnis Prieto, is due August 21.

[nonesuchrecords]

It was 25 years ago today: Sérgio & Odair Assad Play Piazzolla, featuring the Tango Suite Astor Piazzolla composed for the guitarists, was released on Nonesuch. Guitar Player calls this Latin Grammy Award recipient a “stirring tribute to the man who blurred the lines between pop, classical, jazz, and South America's most revered music, the tango.” You can hear it here.

[nonesuchrecords]

Congratulations to Robert Plant, who will receive the Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement Award at the Americana Honors & Awards ceremony at the Ryman in Nashville in September. "Robert Plant's relationship with Americana music extends far beyond influence—it is one of genuine passion, stewardship and artistic curiosity," the Association's Executive Director Jed Hilly said. "Few artists have done more to honor the music's past while helping shape its future."

[nonesuchrecords]

Happy birthday to singer Julia Bullock!

[nonesuchrecords]

Cécile McLorin Salvant perofrms "Sophisticated Lady" with Sullivan Fortner at piano. She performs the song on her new album, With Every Breath I Take, with Metropole Orkest and conductor Jules Buckley, arranged by Darcy James Argue.

[nonesuchrecords]

"Perhaps the most influential living composer, Steve Reich's legacy represents one of the most seismic influential shifts in what we hear as modern music," says The Line of Best Fit ahead of Reich's conversation with Ólafur Arnalds for its Nine Songs series. Reich shares nine songs that have impacted his life and work, by Stravinsky, Bach, Pérotin, Bartók, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Jr. Walker & The All Stars, and Radiohead, and the Balinese gamelan. You can read their conversation and hear the songs here.