As part of Record Store Day's "Back to Black" Friday on November 25, 2011, The Black Keys will release a limited-edition vinyl 12-inch of their new single, "Lonely Boy," to participating indie music retailers. Both the lead track and the B-side, "Run Right Back," are featured on the band's forthcoming album, El Camino, which hits stores on December 6.

The acclaimed 1999 album Jim Hall & Pat Metheny will be reissued for the first time on Nonesuch Records on November 8 and is available to pre-order now. Metheny's duo collaboration with Hall, whom he has called the "father of modern guitar playing," features 17 tracks: original tunes from each guitarist, several improvisations captured in the studio, plus six tunes recorded live in concert, including Gershwin's "Summertime." "The excellence of the playing is the heart of the matter," says the Philadelphia Inquirer. "It's a privilege to listen in." The Los Angeles Times calls it "extraordinary."

The Black Keys’ new album El Camino will be released December 6 on Nonesuch Records. Produced by Danger Mouse and The Black Keys, the 11-track album was recorded at singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in the band’s new hometown of Nashville during the spring of 2011. "This record is more straight ahead rock and roll," says Auerbach, "raw, driving, and back to basics.” Pre-orders of El Camino begin today at theblackkeys.com and nonesuch.com and include a download of the single, "Lonely Boy," which will be delivered on October 26.

Björk’s new album, Biophilia, is out now. Additionally, the complete Biophilia App is now available in the iTunes App Store. Biophilia is featured on this week's Science Times podcast from the New York Times. Björk spoke about the project with NPR's All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen, who says: "Björk is a visionary." CNN says the project "really takes technology, music, and even education to a new place." 

While touring in support of his 2008 album Harps and Angels, Randy Newman performed a special concert at London’s intimate LSO St. Luke’s accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra led by Robert Ziegler. The program, featuring songs from throughout Newman’s career, was televised by the BBC. Nonesuch Records releases this concert as Randy Newman: Live in London on November 8; the CD/DVD package is available now for preorder in the Nonesuch Store. Time Out London calls it "essential viewing for fans."

Nonesuch Records will release an album of works by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki and composer/Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood in 2012. The artists’ work was presented side-by-side in two mid-September concerts in Wrocław, which included Penderecki's Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima and Polymorphia (for 48 strings); the latter inspired the Greenwood piece on the program, 48 Responses to Polymorphia. The works were then recorded for the Nonesuch album in Kraków, along with Greenwood's Popcorn Superhet Receiver, which was inspired by Penderecki’s Threnody.

Fatoumata Diawara makes her North American recording debut with today's release of the digital EP Kanou. Inspired by Wassoulou tradition, jazz, and blues, Diawara has created her own unique contemporary folk sound, giving a distinctly African spin to the concept of the female singer-songwriter. "Like her mentor [Oumou] Sangaré," says the Financial Times, "Diawara combines feminist social conscience with effortless melodic charm." The Kanou digital EP includes four tracks plus the video for the song "Bissa." Watch the video here.

Modern Music, a collaboration between pianists Brad Mehldau and Kevin Hays and composer/arranger Patrick Zimmerli is out this week. The album features pieces written by each of the three musicians as well as works by Reich, Coleman, and Glass, performed by the two pianists in arrangements by Zimmerli. The New York Times says the pianists bring "a high sheen to some choice material." The Financial Times gives the album a perfect five stars. MusicOMH calls it "another fascinating and technically remarkable addition to Mehldau’s body of work." The Guardian, reviewing Mehldau's live show with Chris Thile in London on Friday, says their "musicality and sympathy for each other's emerging ideas made it an unexpected tour de force."

Björk's Biophilia project is the Icelandic artist’s most interdisciplinary project to date, comprising a studio album, an app, a new website, custom-made musical instruments, live shows, and educational workshops. The album is due out on October 11, two weeks after its initially scheduled release date. Björk has written a statement explaining why the move was made and offering lots of great news about the album in the process! Read the full text of Björk's note here.

Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, which was released late last month on CD and digitally, is out today as a double-vinyl set, which includes two audiophile-quality, 140-gram vinyl discs plus a CD of the complete album. Ireland's Evening Herald is the latest publication to give the album a perfect five stars, saying: "The headline news is that Ry Cooder has made yet another of his trademark, cornerstone collections, dragging in the wide span of his American music influences." Canada's Winnipeg Free Press offers another five-star review and says: "This one is a classic." 

Björk continues to unveil Biophilia with the release of the brand new track “Moon” as a single and as a special feature of the Biophilia App, both available exclusively through iTunes. The app is a song and music sequencer inspired by similarities between cycles in music and cycles of the moon and tides. It also contains an animation, a scrolling music notation and an essay exploring Björk’s ideas about cycles in music and nature.

Nonesuch releases Steve Reich’s album WTC 9/11 on September 20, 2011. Commissioned for and recorded by Kronos Quartet, the title piece will be available for digital purchase on September 6. The album also includes Reich’s Mallet Quartet, performed by Sō Percussion, and Dance Patterns, featuring members of Steve Reich and Musicians, as well as a DVD with a live performance of Mallet Quartet by Sō Percussion. The full album may be pre-ordered now in the Nonesuch Store, where CD orders include a free download of the title piece starting September 6 and the complete album starting September 20.