Nonesuch Records releases A Crimson Grail—Rhys Chatham’s work for large electric guitar orchestra—on September 14, 2010. Written in 2005 as a commission for the city of Paris, A Crimson Grail premiered at the basilica of Sacré-Coeur. It was created to work with the specific architecture of the basilica, making use of its natural 15-second reverberation time. Scored for as many as 400 guitarists, an orchestra of approximately 125 musicians performed the premiere, to great acclaim. The Dallas Observer said of a recording of that concert, “Beautifully intricate and harmonically dense, A Crimson Grail is nearly ambient in tone while pursuing a beauty that never seems beyond its scope.”

Nonesuch releases an album with two Steve Reich compositions—Double Sextet and 2x5—on September 14, 2010. The Pulitzer Prize–winning piece Double Sextet, performed here by eighth blackbird, has been cited "among the finest pieces of our time" by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Bang on a Can perform 2x5, which premiered at the Manchester International Festival on a double bill with Kraftwerk and expands Reich's musical palate with rock instrumentation.

Familial, the first solo record from Radiohead drummer Philip Selway, is due out on Nonesuch Records in the US and Canada on August 31. It is now up for pre-order on vinyl and CD in the Nonesuch Store, with an MP3 of the opening track, "By Some Miracle," available instantly with each pre-order. As with almost every album in the Nonesuch Store, orders also include 320 kbps MP3s of the complete album, available on release day.

"Quicksand," the new single written and performed by Ry Cooder in response to Arizona law SB 1070 and the current immigration battle in the US, is now available, exclusively at iTunes. Cooder has chosen MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, to receive all proceeds from sales of the single.

In response to the immigration battle currently raging in the US, Ry Cooder wrote the song "Quicksand," which tells the story of six would-be immigrants making their way from Mexico to the Arizona border. The track will be released exclusively on iTunes on June 29, with proceeds going to MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund; it has now premiered exclusively on NPR's All Songs Considered blog.

Punch Brothers are back in their adopted hometown of New York City, where they first crafted the songs on their new album, Antifogmatic, for a show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. There's much to celebrate: the album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart of new artists. The band will discuss and perform songs from Antifogmatic on WNYC's Soundcheck this afternoon.

Laurie Anderson's long-awaited new album, Homeland, her first studio record in nearly a decade, is out now. Canada's Globe and Mail gives the album four stars, saying it is "blessed with some of the most vivid soundscapes of her career ... [T]he wealth of acoustic detail ensures that there’s something new to discover with each re-hearing." Fenway Bergamot, Anderson's male alter ego, delivers his fifth and final video in the series at nonesuch.com/media.

Laurie Anderson's latest album, Homeland, is out tomorrow. Pitchfork rates the album 8.3, calling it "an exquisite state-of-the-union dispatch as only Anderson, America's darkly comic conscience, can provide ... The music is spacious, mercurial, and thoroughly conceived." The Baltimore Sun , LA Times, and the Independent (UK) give it four stars. Australia's Courier-Mail calls it "some of the most striking music of Anderson's career." MusicOMH gives the album a perfect five stars, exclaiming, "what a work of art it is."

In 1996, a group of Mali's finest musicians were due to fly into Havana for a speculative collaboration with some of Cuba's most brilliant singers and instrumentalists. For reasons that have never been made clear, the Malians never arrived. A very different album was recorded: Buena Vista Social Club. Now, World Circuit Records' Nick Gold, the man behind the 1996 venture, has brought the original invitees together and the great lost Afro-Cuban album will be released 14 years after originally planned.

The soundtrack for I Am Love, the new film from director Luca Guadagnino and actress Tilda Swinton, featuring music by John Adams, is out today on Nonesuch, one day before the film's red-carpet premiere gala in New York City. The filmmakers discuss their use of Adams' music in the Wall Street Journal. The Observer notes: "Whether or not you see the film, this soundtrack is a rewarding digest of the Pulitzer-winner's musical styles."

Lonely Avenue, a collaboration between two eminent artists—American singer-songwriter Ben Folds and English novelist Nick Hornby—will be released September 28 on Nonesuch Records. The album features music and vocals by Folds and lyrics by Hornby, with string arrangements by one of the most influential pop string arrangers of all time, Paul Buckmaster. Lonely Avenue, made specifically to be listened to on vinyl, will also be available on CD, digitally, and in a special deluxe edition that includes four short stories by Hornby.

Radiohead drummer Philip Selway will release his first solo album, Familial, August 31 on Nonesuch Records. The album will be available for pre-order late June. A collection of fragile, haunting, and heartfelt songs, Familial is likely to surprise many—and not solely because these understated performances are coming from a drummer; it makes the case for Selway as a natural born singer-songwriter.