Pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan's third Nonesuch recording, For Gyumri, is due February 16, 2018. A companion to 2017’s An Ancient Observer, For Gyumri includes five additional songs. Hamasyan says: "These songs are musical observations about the world we live in now, and the weight of history we carry with us." He will tour this winter/spring. For Gyumri is available to preorder with an instant download of the track "Rays of Light," the video for which you can watch here.

Emmylou Harris will receive the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award, along with Hal Blaine, Neil Diamond, Louis Jordan, the Meters, Queen, and Tina Turner. A special award presentation ceremony and concert celebrating the honorees will be held in summer 2018. "Their outstanding accomplishments and passion for their craft have created a timeless legacy," Neil Portnow, President/CEO of the Recording Academy. Harris is a 13-time Grammy winner, including for her Nonesuch albums Red Dirt Girl and Old Yellow Moon.

David Byrne announced his new solo record, American Utopia, in a presentation of "Reasons To Be Cheerful," an ongoing series curated by Byrne of hopeful writings, photos, music, and lectures. The album is due March 9, 2018, accompanied by a world tour. American Utopia morphed during the writing and recording process, beginning with Brian Eno and growing to include collaboration with producer Rodaidh McDonald and contributors Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never), Jam City, Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman), Jack Peñate, and others. American Utopia is available to pre-order now with an instant download of the track "Everybody's Coming To My House." Nonesuch Store pre-orders also include an exclusive print.

Punch Brothers performed on a special holiday edition of CBS This Morning's Saturday Sessions on December 23. The band was joined by Aoife O'Donovan on the Pogues' holiday classic "Fairytale of New York," and she, Chris Thile, and Chris Eldridge performed "Douglas Fir," from Thile's new album, Thanks for Listening. Punch Brothers also performed "Little Lights," from their album The Phosphorescent Blues. You can watch all three performances below.

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell recently sat down with The Bluegrass Situation to perform the title track of their 2015 album, The Traveling Kind. The performance, for the site's Sitch Sessions, took place in a flower-filled 1954 Silver Streak trailer in East Nashville. You can watch it here.

As 2017 draws to a close, and the Nonesuch Journal takes a bit of a hiatus till the start of 2018, it's time to take a look back and remember all of the great and diverse music made by Nonesuch artists over the past year. Many Nonesuch artists and their recent Nonesuch releases have made music critics' and fans' year-end best lists. Here, in words and music and in chronological order, is a look back at the year in Nonesuch music.

Randy Newman's 2008 album Harps and Angels is now available on vinyl and as HD digital for the first time. The vinyl edition features what was then his first album of new material in nine years on a single 140-gram LP. The Guardian praised the album for its "sumptuous melodies, devastating pathos and thorny, irony-laden character songs," calling it "the work of a true master of popular song." 

Nonesuch will release Jonny Greenwood's Golden Globe–nominated score to Paul Thomas Anderson's new film, Phantom Thread, digitally on January 12, 2018, on CD February 9, and on vinyl April 21. The film, set in the glamour of 1950s post-war London, stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville, and Vicky Krieps. The soundtrack—eighteen compositions by Greenwood—was recorded in London with a sixty-piece orchestra led by Robert Ziegler and is featured more prominently in the film than any of Greenwood's scores have been before. Phantom Thread is available to preorder here with an instant download of the track "House of Woodcock."

Just in time for the holidays, Robert Finley debuted his music video for “Merry Christmas, I Love You” via Uproxx, which calls it “a bluesy throwback holiday song in both message and execution.” The song, produced and co-written by Dan Auerbach, is available now on Amazon Prime Music. Watch the video, directed by Gus Black, here.

Rostam recently stopped by his parents' home and joined his mother, celebrated Iranian-American chef and cookbook author Najmieh Batmanglij, in the family kitchen to cook some of his favorite dishes and chat with Vevo's Kim Taylor Bennett about food, family, and his new album, Half-Light. You can watch the piece below.

Randy Newman was a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. He performed "It's a Jungle Out There" from his new album, Dark Matter, with help from the Roots, and was joined by Fallon for a piano-side chat. You can watch both plus a special web-exclusive performance of his classic tune "Short People" here.

The Staves and yMusic were on Live From Here with Chris Thile, broadcast live from The Town Hall in NYC on Saturday, performing three songs from their new album, The Way Is Read: the title track, "Trouble on My Mind," and "All My Life." The Staves also joined Thile and the show's other guests, Jeff Tweedy, Sarah Jarosz, and Punch Brothers, to perform the Pogues' Christmas classic "Fairytale of New York." Watch the performances here.