New York's Azart Gallery presents its inaugural show, "The Many Faces of Kin (←→)," an exhibition that celebrates the release of Pat Metheny’s newest recording on Nonesuch Records, due out next week, and offers a glimpse into the evolution and execution of the album cover art by its designers at Doyle Partners. The exhibition opens with a reception for the artists tonight and continues through February 15. 

A one-night-only concert was held at NYC’s Town Hall on September 29, 2013, to celebrate the music of the Golden Globe–nominated film Inside Llewyn Davis. The evening was filmed for a documentary that will be broadcast by SHOWTIME beginning this Friday, December 13, at 10 PM, and Nonesuch Records will release a live album from the concert (details to follow). The concert, documentary, and live album were produced by Inside Llewyn Davis writer / director / producers Joel and Ethan Coen and soundtrack producer T Bone Burnett. Watch a preview here.

On the acclaimed Mermaid Avenue albums, Billy Bragg and Wilco put music to lyrics by folk legend Woody Guthrie for which he had not written music or made recordings. Nonesuch Records has now reissued the first two volumes on vinyl and release, for the first time on vinyl, a third volume comprising 17 previously unreleased recordings made during the original sessions, which was first released in the 2012 three-CD-plus-DVD set Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions. Each volume is pressed on 2-LP, 180-gram vinyl at Pallas MFG in Diepholz, Germany. 

Last year, for the first time since 1980, guitarist Pat Metheny recorded with a band that highlighted tenor saxophone. Unity Band, which went on to win Metheny his 20th Grammy Award, featured Chris Potter on sax and bass clarinet, longtime collaborator Antonio Sanchez on drums, and Ben Williams on bass. Now, Metheny has added another musician, multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi, and christened the ensemble Pat Metheny Unity Group. The Group’s first record, Kin (←→), will be released by Nonesuch on February 4, 2014, and is available to pre-order with an exclusive print autographed by Metheny. The Pat Metheny Unity Group will tour North America starting February 3 and Europe in the spring.

Nonesuch Records releases the debut album from the electric duo of Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana, Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, on February 25, 2014. The two have been performing for several years, including a brief US tour this fall, with Mehldau playing Fender Rhodes and synthesizers and Guiliana on drums and effects, as they are on the record. Mehliana comprises 12 original tunes—six written by the duo and six written by Mehldau—and was engineered and mixed by Greg Koller (Jon Brion, Kanye West). The vinyl edition of the album is due March 18. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include an instant download of the album track “Hungry Ghost.”

The soundtrack to Inside Llewyn Davis is out now on Nonesuch Records. Written and directed by Academy Award© winners Joel and Ethan Coen and produced by Scott Rudin and Joel and Ethan Coen, the film stars Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, and Justin Timberlake. Produced by T Bone Burnett, Joel Coen, and Ethan Coen, with Marcus Mumford as its associate producer, the album features 12 new recordings created especially for the film and soundtrack. Also included is a never-before-released recording of Bob Dylan performing his song “Farewell,” which was originally recorded during the sessions for his album The Times They Are A-Changin' and is available exclusively on this soundtrack. 

The soundtrack to the forthcoming Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis is due out November 11 on Nonesuch Records. But there's no need to wait till then to hear it: the album is streaming in full all week as an NPR First Listen. "Among many other accomplishments, filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen helped change the direction of contemporary music with the soundtrack to their 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?," writes NPR's Stephen Thompson. "As with O Brother, music is integral to Inside Llewyn Davis," he continues; the soundtrack functions "both as a stand-alone collection of frequently gorgeous music and as a companion piece to a movie in which many different strains of folk collide as part of a scene taking shape."

On the acclaimed Mermaid Avenue albums, Billy Bragg and Wilco put music to lyrics by folk legend Woody Guthrie for which he had not written music or made recordings. On Black Friday, November 29, 2013, Nonesuch Records will reissue the first two volumes on vinyl and release, for the first time on vinyl, a third volume comprising 17 previously unreleased recordings made during the original sessions, which was first released in the 2012 three-CD-plus-DVD set Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions. Each volume is pressed on 2-LP, 180-gram vinyl at Pallas MFG in Diepholz, Germany. The albums are available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store.

Today marks the North American release of pianist—and newly minted MacArthur Fellow—Jeremy Denk’s recording of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, with the international release to follow on October 21. A companion DVD accompanies the album and contains video “liner notes,” with Denk demonstrating passages on the piano as he explains certain details of the iconic piece. Denk is currently touring the US and will perform the piece in Washington, DC, and Chicago later this month.

Today marks the release of Rokia Traoré’s new album, Beautiful Africa, in the US. The record, which was released internationally earlier this year to critical acclaim, was produced by English musician John Parish. "The Malian singer Rokia Traoré has a gentle voice with a steely core, one that’s revealed more clearly than ever on Beautiful Africa," says the New York Times. NPR concludes: "Beautiful Africa is just as smart and lovely as its creator." Following its UK release, the album earned five stars from the Observer, Guardian, and Songlines, which raves: "It really doesn’t get better than this in today’s African music ... Rokia’s work is exciting, surprising, and always perfectly executed."

Ry Cooder’s first live record in more than 35 years, Live in San Francisco, is out now. The album, produced by Cooder, was recorded in 2011 during a special two-night engagement with the Corridos Famosos band and a ten-piece Mexican brass band at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall, and includes original songs and interpretations of other material from across his career. "One of those nights when you wish you’d been in Row A," says the Sunday Times of London. Guitarist magazine calls it "sublime, spirited slide 'n' soul from a past-master of the art."

Nonesuch Records released Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, an album of Bach works recorded by mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, to critical acclaim earlier this month. On September 24, 2013,  the vinyl edition will be released, comprising two works written for solo violin: Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001, and Partita No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1002. The LP, produced by Edgar Meyer, was pressed on a single disc in 140-gram vinyl at Pallas in Diepholz, Germany, and is available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store. Thile is currently touring with his fellow musicians of The Goat Rodeo Sessions and will perform works by Bach in solo recitals this fall.