Punch Brothers begin a three-week US tour at Overture Hall in Madison, Wisconsin, tonight. The shows feature songs from the band's latest album, The Phosphorescent Blues, and new EP, The Wireless, sung around a single mic. The tour stops in Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and North Carolina, culminating with two nights at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee. Chris Thile closes out the year in duo shows with label mate Brad Mehldau in NYC and upstate New York.

Kronos Quartet will make its first tour of the UK in many years, starting with the group's return to the Barbican in May 2016. The program includes Terry Riley’s One Earth, One People, One Love; the world premiere of a new piece by Martin Green of Lau; works by Laurie Anderson and Komitas; and arrangements including The Who’s Baba O’Riley. The evening also features three UK premieres of works by Fodé Lassana Diabaté from Trio da Kali, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and Garth Knoxas part of the Kronos Fifty for the Future commissioning project.

Today is the day after Thanksgiving in the US and that means, among other things, Record Store Day Black Friday, offering unique recordings from some of your favorite artists, including The Arcs, who have released The Arcs vs. The Inventors Vol. I, a new limited-edition 10" six-song recording featuring Dr. John and David Hidalgo, and Rhiannon Giddens, who releases Factory Girl, a five-song vinyl 10" EP culled from the same T Bone Burnett–produced sessions that yielded here solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn. To pick up a copy of these vinyl releases while supplies last, head to a record store near you.

In December 2007, the Nonesuch Store opened at nonesuch.com with just a couple of new releases. Now, eight years later, the store has grown to include hundreds of new and classic Nonesuch albums. To celebrate this anniversary, everything now on the site that's out now—CDs, LPs, DVDs, MP3s, FLAC; pre-orders excluded—is 15% off our everyday low prices. That's 15% off the already discounted prices listed on the site on hundreds of CDs, dozens of recordings on vinyl, some unforgettable DVDs, and hundreds of MP3s—including classic recordings no longer in print—and, for digital audiophiles, scores of FLAC lossless files of our latest releases, and a number of new HD FLAC files too.

There's more than a month to go before 2015 comes to a close, and already the UK music magazines have begun to weigh in on the year's best music. Uncut and Mojo have published their lists of the Best Albums of the Year, and included among them are a number of Nonesuch releases, all firsts of a sort: Olivia Chaney's debut album, Rhiannon Giddens's first solo record, and the debut from the newly minted quartet of The Bad Plus Joshua Redman.

Laurie Anderson's new film, Heart of a Dog, has been nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary. "This year’s nominees are a testament to the strength, vitality and diversity of independent, artist-driven filmmaking," said Film Independent President Josh Welsh. "It’s an astonishingly strong group of films and performances this year and we look forward to celebrating them all at the Spirit Awards." Winners will be announced on February 27, 2016; the awards ceremony will be broadcast live on IFC.

Record Store Day has premiered The Arcs' new track "Young," which was co-written by David Berman of the Silver Jews. "We've been meeting at night, writing together for a few years," says The Arcs' Dan Auerbach. "This is the first time we've shared any of that. The Arcs have recorded more songs from the collaboration and we hope to release more of it very soon." You can hear the track here. The song appears on the band's limited-edition six-song recording, The Arcs vs. The Inventors Vol. I, featuring Dr. John and David Hidalgo. The 10" vinyl is out this Friday, November 27, for Record Store Day's Black Friday event. A digital version will be available December 11. The Arcs kick off a North American tour December 1.

Rhiannon Giddens could be seen on televisions across the United States over the weekend. She performed "Cry No More" on Shining a Light: A Concert for Progress on Race in America, a two-hour event airing on A&E Networks and iHeartRadio stations Friday night, and "Waterboy" on PBS's Austin City Limits special of highlights from the Americana Honors & Awards show on Saturday night. You can watch both performances here.

Junun, the new album from Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood, and the Rajasthan Express, was released on Friday to critical acclaim. Also on Friday came the release on iTunes of Paul Thomas Anderson's film of the same name, which documents the recording of the album. Now comes an outtake from the film featuring the group's performance of the album track "Hu." The Observer, which gives the album four stars, says "the hypnotic 'Hu' locks into an almighty groove." See for yourself in the video here. 

President Barack Obama has named composer Stephen Sondheim a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The medals will be presented in a ceremony at The White House Tuesday evening. "I look forward to presenting these 17 distinguished Americans with our nation’s highest civilian honor," says President Obama. "From public servants who helped us meet defining challenges of our time to artists who expanded our imaginations, from leaders who have made our union more perfect to athletes who have inspired millions of fans, these men and women have enriched our lives and helped define our shared experience as Americans."

Today marks the release of Junun, the new album from composer/musician Shye Ben Tzur, guitarist Jonny Greenwood, and the Rajasthan Express, a group of Indian musicians. Recorded earlier this year in a makeshift studio inside the 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, India, the album was made with Radiohead's producer Nigel Godrich. The album comprises Ben Tzur’s compositions, which feature devotional Sufi qawwal musicians who sing in Urdu as well as in his native Hebrew. "One of the most inspired releases of the year," exclaims the Sunday Times of London. "Intriguing, sinuous, and essential listening." Also out today on iTunes: Paul Thomas Anderson's film documenting the recording. Watch an outtake from the film featuring the song "Hu" here.

Rokia Traoré's sixth album, Né So (Home), will be released by Nonesuch Records on February 12, 2016. The album was produced by John Parish (PJ Harvey, Tracy Chapman), who also produced her 2013 record, Beautiful Africa. Né So features guest performances by John Paul Jones, Toni Morrison, and Traoré's labelmate Devendra Banhart, along with Burkinabe drummer Moïse Ouattara, Ivorian bassist Matthieu N'guessan, long-time collaborator Malian ngoni player Mamah Diabaté, guitarists Rodriguez Vangama and Stefano Pilia. The album, which features 10 original songs and a cover of Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," is available to preorder with an instant downloaded of the title track. Traoré has released a video of that track, which you can watch here. She will tour in support of Né So this spring.