Tyondai Braxton's Nonesuch debut album, HIVE1, is due out next week. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it: the album is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen at npr.org. "New sounds continually spark like fireworks inside HIVE1's shifting, stereo-spanning mix, which is especially intoxicating through headphones," says NPR Music's Marc Masters. "[W]hat sets this album apart is its playfulness—the feeling that experimenting with sound is a joyful game rather than an academic exercise."

St Germain (aka Ludovic Navarre), whose albums Boulevard and Tourist originated a genre of French electronic music that later included artists like Air, has returned to the studio to create his first album in 15 years. The self-titled record, due October 9 on Nonesuch Records in the US, marries percussive grooves, which have always been central to St Germain’s sound, with a new element: traditional Malian music. Pre-orders of the album include an instant download of the opening track, "Real Blues," which you can hear here.

The Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA has announced its 2015–16 season, and featured among the artists performing this season are several artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Randy Newman, Sam Amidon, Richard Goode, and Rokia Traoré. The season also includes works by Steve Reich, as part of a celebration of choreographer Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker, and the West Coast premiere of a new work by Timo Andres.

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, whose new duets album, The Traveling Kind, is due out May 12, stopped by the Late Show with David Letterman as musical guests on the show last night. They sang a special rendition of the gospel tune "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" in tribute to Letterman, whose final episode as host will air later this month, joined by Steve Martin on banjo, Amos Lee on guitar and vocals, and Mark O'Connor on fiddle. You can watch their performance here.

Joshua Redman traveled to Myanmar with the International Rescue Committee in February to visit IRC-run maternal health and community engagement programs. He spoke with villagers who were building roads and water systems based on community consensus gained through an election organized by the IRC—giving some villagers the chance to vote for the very first time. Redman became an IRC Voice in 2013 and says of his trip, "I have played music all over the world, but I have never before experienced something like this." Watch a video from the visit here.

Celebrate Brooklyn!—one of New York City's longest running, free, outdoor performing arts festivals—has announced the complete line-up for this summer's concert series in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Among the featured performers this year are Nonesuch artists Punch Brothers, Rhiannon Giddens, and Sam Amidon with Bill Frisell. You can see the complete line-up in the highly-recommended announcement video posted here.

Punch Brothers, as part of the North American tour celebrating the release of their new album, The Phosphorescent Blues, performed for a sold-out crowd at Boston's House of Blues in March. The WGBH program Front Row Boston was there to capture the event. You can now watch the band perform several tracks from the new album and earlier favorites, interspersed with backstage interviews with the band, in the 90-minute video here. Up next on the tour: Bonnaroo and Telluride Bluegrass festivals in June.

The winners of the Songlines Music Awards 2015 have been announced, and among them are Kronos Quartet, which has won for Cross-Cultural Collaboration of the Year for its 40th anniversary release A Thousand Thoughts, and Toumani and Sidiki Diabaté, who were named Best Group of the Year for their father-son duo kora album, Toumani & Sidiki, released on World Circuit Records.

Olivia Chaney's debut album, The Longest River, is out today. The Sunday Times of London calls it "a mesmerising debut." It earns four stars from MOJO; Observer, which calls it "an enchanting, stately creation"; and Irish Times, which says it's "a beautiful job of work ... a hugely rewarding listen." The Arts Desk exclaims: "Chaney’s voice has a remarkable clarity and purity, a lyrical and emotional strength that puts her up among the best—of her generation or those who came before." Chaney performs on BBC Radio 3's In Tune today and will tour the UK in May and North America in June.

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell have shared a new track, "You Can't Say We Didn't Try," from their forthcoming album, The Traveling Kind, due May 12; you can hear it here. That track and the album's title track, which was unveiled last month, are also available to download now with pre-orders of the album. Harris and Crowell kick off a tour of intimate shows starting next week in San Francisco.

Two classics albums from World Circuit Records are now available on vinyl: the 2001 reissue of Orchestra Baobab's much sought-after 1982 debut, Pirates Choice, and Ali Farka Touré's Grammy Award-winning 1993 collaboration with Ry Cooder, Talking Timbuktu. Each is available on double 180-gram vinyl LPs from World Circuit, distributed in North America on Nonesuch Records, and can be found at your favorite local record shop and in the vinyl section of the Nonesuch Store.

When Record Store Day took place earlier this month, included among the special releases were limited-edition vinyl from two Nonesuch artists: Robert Plant's 10" vinyl EP More Roar, with three tracks from his 2014 lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar world tour, and Steve Reich's Grammy Award-winning Music for 18 Musicians re-issued on two 180-gram vinyl LPs. A very limited number of both items is now available in the Nonesuch Store.