“The music on Dynamic Maximum Tension consists mostly of portraits of people—Buckminster Fuller and Alan Turing and Mae West and Duke Ellington,” composer and bandleader Darcy James Argue says of his upcoming album with his Secret Society ensemble in a new behind-the-scenes video. "I tried to think about, well, what are the places in my life where I turn to look for optimism and inspiration and the idea that the future is something to be anticipated rather than dreaded. So that’s the impetus for so much of the music on this record—to look to a period in the past where the future seemed brighter than it does today, and to try to find a way to represent that optimism about the future in music some way.” You can watch the video, directed by Reuben Hernandez at PowerStation at BerkleeNYC, here.

Rhiannon Giddens has shared a new video about the making of her new album, You're the One, filmed by Torrance Hill in Miami's Criteria Recording Studios at the recording of the album. "This album has been created in love and camaraderie, crossing boundaries musically," she says in the video. "We've got a lot of different types of music going on, a lot of different musicians from different worlds coming together. Part of my mission this whole time is to talk about how these barriers are not barriers ... When people are all in it for the same reason—i.e. we're gonna make an amazing piece of art, we're gonna make this great piece of music, and we're gonna do it in a way that enriches us and the listener, so we have gained by making it, and the listener has gained by listening to it—the barriers don't matter." You can watch it here.

"She’s kind of phenomenal, really," CBS Mornings' Anthony Mason says ahead of his conversation with Rhiannon Giddens. "She’s doing some incredibly important work." They visit RetroFret Vintage Guitars in Brooklyn to talk about her new album, You're the One, her Pulitzer Prize–winning opera with Michael Abels, Omar, and more. You can watch their conversation here.

Rhiannon Giddens and her band were on CBS Saturday Morning to perform a Saturday Sessions set of three songs from her new album, You’re the One: “Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad,” the title track, and “If You Don’t Know How Sweet It Is,” a web exclusive. You can watch all three performances here.

Portuguese fado singer Carminho's new, self-produced album, Portuguesa, released to critical acclaim earlier this year, is now available in the US on CD and vinyl on Nonesuch, ahead of a fall North American tour. You can take a quick look inside the vinyl here. The sixth album of Carminho’s career, Portuguesa features fourteen compositions: several of her own songs as well as those of other writers, including traditional fado songs, through which she explores various combinations within the canons, reimagining the form.

Composer Steve Reich talks about creating his iconic 1965 tape piece It's Gonna Rain in a new video from his publisher Boosey & Hawkes. That year, Reich recorded Pentecostal preacher Brother Walter preaching on Noah and the Flood in San Francisco, then aligned two Wollensak tape recorders that gradually fell out of sync, eventually creating contrapuntal lines from the recording. Reich's first major phasing work, it would become a landmark piece.

Rhiannon Giddens was on the Today show on NBC to perform the title track to her new album, You're the One, out this Friday, and the new album track "Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad," which was released today. "I listened to a bunch of Aretha Franklin, and then turned to fellow Aretha-nut Dirk Powell and said, ‘Let’s write a song she might have sung!,'" Giddens says of the new song. You can watch the Today performances and listen to the new album track here.

Natalie Merchant recently gave an intimate performance at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture in NYC for WFUV’s FUV Live. She spoke with host Alisa Ali and was joined by her longtime guitarist Erik Della Penna to perform several songs from throughout her career. You can now watch her perform "Sister Tilly," from her new album, Keep Your Courage, as well as “Carnival” and “Break Your Heart” from the set here and listen to the complete session at wfuv.org. Merchant resumes her Keep Your Courage tour on the US West Coast, Europe, and the UK in the autumn.

Composer John Adams talks about his acclaimed opera Doctor Atomic and the aria “Batter My Heart” in a new video from Boosey & Hawkes. The opera, with a libretto by Peter Sellars drawn from original sources—including, for this aria, the John Donne sonnet—tells the story of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer and the first atomic bomb explosion in New Mexico in July 1945. The video features scenes from the Dutch National Opera production starring Gerald Finley, who originated the role of Oppenheimer in 2005 and can be heard on the Nonesuch first recording of Doctor Atomic, with the composer leading the BBC Singers and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Julia Bullock as Kitty Oppenheimer. You can hear “Batter My Heart” from the recording here as well.

Portuguese fado singer Carminho performed before Pope Francis and attendees of the World Youth Day Prayer Vigil at Campo da Graça in Lisbon’s Parque Tejo on Saturday night. She sang “Estrela,” from her 2019 album, Maria. You can watch the performance here.

Rhiannon Giddens has released “Yet to Be,” a new single from her forthcoming album, You’re the One, due August 18. “Yet to Be” features Jason Isbell and tells the story of a Black woman and an Irish man falling in love in America. You can watch the video here.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway perform "El Dorado" and "San Joaquin," from their new album, City of Gold, and the title track to their debut album, Crooked Tree, in a new No Depression session filmed live at DelFest.You can watch it here.