Pianist Tigran Hamasyan's Nonesuch Records debut, Mockroot, is out now, featuring new tracks written by Hamasyan, as well as his arrangements of traditional Armenian songs. Although trained as a classical and jazz musician, Hamasyan draws on a wide range of influences, including Armenian folk music, rock, electronica, poetry, and more. "There are many brilliant and perfectly finished young jazz pianists around," says the Telegraph, "but Hamasyan stands out because he has something important and urgent to say." "You will find it difficult if not impossible to get this disc out of your machine for quite a while," raves the Buffalo News. "Don’t count on getting it out of your head for a long while either." Hamasyan and his trio are currently on tour in the US.

Today marks the release of Rhiannon Giddens' solo recording debut, Tomorrow Is My Turn. She makes her solo television debut when she performs "Waterboy" from the album on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman tonight. The album, produced by T Bone Burnett, "is a showcase for Ms. Giddens’s glorious voice," says the New York Times. "For all her technical control, her voice is a perpetually soulful marvel." NPR calls it "a scrupulously selected, richly realized collection of songs." Rolling Stone dubs her "one of the most promising voices in American roots music." The Sunday Times of London says she "manages to tap into the emotional core of everything she touches." The Irish Times exclaims: "This is one seriously impressive debut album."

Nonesuch Records releases The Staves' Justin Vernon–produced label debut, If I Was, in the US on March 31, 2015 (vinyl follows April 21). The Staves are three sisters originally from Watford, England: Emily (vocals), Jessica (vocals, guitar), and Camilla (vocals, ukulele) Staveley-Taylor. The album was recorded at Vernon's Eau Claire, Wisconsin, studio where he also recorded his 2012 self-titled Bon Iver album. Watch a short film about the making of the album here. If I Was is available to pre-order on iTunes and in the Nonesuch Store, with an instant download of the album tracks "Blood I Bled" and "Black & White." Plans for a North American tour will be announced shortly. 

Rhiannon Giddens' debut solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, due out next Tuesday, is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen. "It's a scrupulously selected, richly realized collection of songs," writes NPR's Ann Powers. "Though she didn't write most of these songs, Giddens owns them on Tomorrow Is My Turn ... Her voice—mobile, intelligent, ready to talk back to anyone's presumptions—is always at the center here, guiding the story. Let me be the first to say it: Today is Rhiannon Giddens' turn."

Punch Brothers’ T Bone Burnett–produced new album, The Phosphorescent Blues. The album "shows off their eclectic sound," says NPR's Morning Edition. "The album mixes chamber-music intricacy, improvisational flash, lump-in-throat balladry, and a puckish Debussy cover," says the Boston Globe. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune says the new album features "some choral harmonies that are somewhere between the Beach Boys and heaven." The CBC calls the album "triumphant." "Listening to the Punch Brothers is an exercise in wonder," says the Irish Times. "The playing and harmonies are breathtaking. Enjoy." The Herald Scotland calls it "a quite masterly collection from a quintet of virtuosi."

Punch Brothers' new album, The Phosphorescent Blues, is due out next week (with vinyl due February 24). But you don't need to wait till then to hear it. The new album is streaming in full all this week exclusively via Press Play series, "where The New York Times debuts noteworthy new music." The band kicks off a brief tour of Ireland and the UK this week; the US tour starts February 20.

Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of "Inside Llewyn Davis" is out now on Nonesuch Records. The two-disc collection captures a one-night-only concert held at New York City’s Town Hall in 2013 to celebrate the music of the Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis, featuring live performances by icons and rising stars of folk and Americana. They sang "in pitch perfect tone that left an oft-awestruck audience silently stunned," says the Los Angeles Times, "then vocally thrilled." The Independent on Sunday says it's "as excellent as you would expect with surprising collaborations and stately performances breathing new life into old songs and old fire into new ones."

Nonesuch Records, which released the soundtrack to Richard Linklater's film Boyhood last year, has now digitally released two additional songs written specifically for the movie by Ethan Hawke: “Split the Difference (Daddy’s Lullaby),” performed by Hawke and Charlie Sexton, and “Ryan’s Song,” performed by Hawke with Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, and Jennifer Tooley. “When Rick [Linklater] and I decided to make my character a songwriter," Hawke told the Hollywood Reporter, "he gave me the challenge to write some songs for the movie. We didn’t know at that time whether they would be in the movie or not, but it allowed me to take some time and get into character … If it had been a normal movie I never would have been able to come up with two songs, but I had 12 years!” 

Jonny Greenwood’s soundtrack to Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, Inherent Vice, is out now on CD and digitally, with the vinyl to follow March 3. An adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel, Inherent Vice, now playing in select theaters in NYC and LA, is set in the tail end of the psychedelic ’60s. The soundtrack features nine compositions by Greenwood, an unreleased Radiohead tune performed by members of Supergrass, plus other recordings from the movie’s era. The New York Times calls it an "excellent playlist." Additional performers include The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Neil Young, Can, and The Marketts, among others.

Nonesuch releases Punch Brothers’ T Bone Burnett–produced The Phosphorescent Blues on January 27, 2015; vinyl follows on February 24 with four additional tracks not available elsewhere. In celebration, the band embarks on a 23-city North American tour on February 20. The Phosphorescent Blues is available to pre-order with instant downloads of the album tracks “I Blew It Off” and “Julep,” which you can preview here.

Today is the day after Thanksgiving in the US and that means, among other things, Record Store Day Black Friday, offering unique recordings from some of your favorite artists, including Conor Oberst. He releases a special, limited-edition 7" featuring two exclusive tracks recorded during the sessions for his new album, Upside Down Mountain, that are unavailable anywhere else: "Standing on the Outside Looking In" and "Sugar Street." To pick up a copy of the 7" while supplies last, head to a record store near you.

Nonesuch Records releases pianist Tigran Hamasyan's label debut album, Mockroot, on February 17, 2015, available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store. Mockroot features Hamasyan on piano, voice, keyboards, synths and sound effects, Sam Minaie on electric bass, and Arthur Hnatek on drums and live electronics. The album comprises new tracks written by Hamasyan, as well as his arrangements of traditional Armenian songs. Although trained as a classical and jazz musician, Tigran Hamasyan draws on a wide range of influences, including Armenian folk music, rock, electronica, poetry, and more.