"This was written at a cottage in the English countryside in winter where we had gone on a writing retreat to escape the noise of London," the Staves' Jessica and Camilla Staveley say of their new song, "Sitting By the Fire," out today. "On a cigarette break, Jessica went outside in the dark and could see Camilla through the window, sat at the fireplace writing a song. The song is a photograph of sorts, capturing that moment. We recorded this after we had cut the record [All Now] out in LA. We were back in London and revisited this tune and we felt that it would really be perfect to have [our sister] Emily join us on it to lend her voice to this a cappella recording."

Composer/performer Gabriel Kahane stopped by for the Nonesuch Selects video series, in which artists visit the Nonesuch office, pick some of their favorite albums from the music library, and share a few words on their choices. He chose recordings by Ambrose Akinmusire, Punch Brothers, Sam Amidon, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Richard Goode & Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Fred Hersch, and his father, Jeffrey Kahane.

The Black Keys have announced a mix of large-scale outdoor headline shows and festival dates for their upcoming European tour. Kicking off in Denmark on June 26, the tour will run through July, with stops in Berlin, Zurich, Manchester, London, Rome, and more. These shows will follow previously announced Latin American tour dates. The band also debuted a music video for “Sin City,” the latest track from Ohio Players (Trophy Edition), the expanded version of their GRAMMY-nominated new album; you can watch it here.

Composer Donnacha Dennehy, whose piece Land of Winter, performed by Alarm Will Sound and conductor Alan Pierson, was released earlier this month on Nonesuch, shares some insight on the work, which explores the subtleties of Ireland’s seasons via twelve connected sections representing the months of the year, in a new essay. "It is the varying quality of light that truly demarcates the seasons," he says, "from the shorter days of grey or piercing light in the winter to the warmer but mercurial light of summer days that at solstice stretch almost to midnight. I like this play between light and time, and it is the major inspiration behind the piece."

Molly Tuttle was on the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, joining Golden Highway fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Dierks Bentley, and Sierra Hull to perform Tom Petty's "American Girl." You can watch it here.

The Way Out of Easy, the first album from guitarist Jeff Parker and his long-running ETA IVtet—saxophonist Josh Johnson, bassist Anna Butterss, drummer Jay Bellerose—since their 2022 debut Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy, which Pitchfork named one of the Best Albums of the 2020s So Far, is out now on International Anthem / Nonesuch Records. Like that album, The Way Out of Easy comprises recordings from LA venue ETA, where Parker and the ensemble held a weekly residency for seven years. During that time, the ETA IVtet evolved from a band that played mostly standards into a group known for its transcendent, long-form journeys into innovative, groove-oriented improvised music. All four tracks on The Way Out of Easy come from a single night in 2023, providing an unfiltered view of the ensemble, fully in their element. 

The Staves' new EP Happy New Year, out today, includes three acoustic versions of tracks from their new album, All Now—"I Don't Say It, But I Feel It," "After School," and "All Now"—and a cover of The Beatles' "She's Leaving Home." Also out now: an acoustic performance video for "After School," which the duo calls "a love song to our sister Emily inspired by the bands we were listening to in the '90s. Putting on the rose-tinted glasses and embracing nostalgia."

Rhiannon Giddens and Silkroad Ensemble conclude American Railroad fall tour at BAM in Brooklyn. Carminho is across the river at The Town Hall in NYC. John Adams is performed by the CSO. Laurie Anderson’s ARK: United States V concludes in Manchester. Jeremy Denk joins Fairfax Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven. Mary Halvorson tours Spain and Switzerland. Caroline Shaw is at Cité de la musique in Paris with Roomful of Teeth and Gabriel Kahane. Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered is performed in Amsterdam. The Staves are in Denver. Davóne Tines sings Bach at Columbia. Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway tour Massachusetts, upstate New York, and Ohio.

Composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire’s honey from a winter stone is out January 31, 2025, on Nonesuch Records. The album, which Ambrose calls a “self-portrait,” features improvisational vocalist Kokayi, pianist Sam Harris, Chiquitamagic on synthesizer, drummer Justin Brown, and the Mivos Quartet. Akinmusire says, “In many respects this entire work is inspired by and is an homage to the work of the composer Julius Eastman and his organic music concept." The opening track, “muffled screams,” is out now.

Nonesuch releases a deluxe edition of Wilco’s 2004 Grammy Award–winning album A Ghost Is Born on February 7, 2025. The box set comprises either nine vinyl LPs and four CDs or nine CDs—including the original album, alternates, outtakes, and demos, charting the making of A Ghost Is Born—plus the complete 2004 concert recording from Boston’s Wang Center and the band’s “fundamentals” workshop sessions. It includes sixty-five previously unreleased music tracks as well as a forty-eight-page hardcover book with previously unpublished photos and a new liner note by Grammy-winning writer Bob Mehr. An alternate version of “Handshake Drugs,” recorded during the studio sessions at New York’s Sear Sound, twenty-one years ago this month, is out now. There will also be a new vinyl pressing of the original album in a two-disc package, and a two-CD expanded version of the original album with bonus track highlights from the full deluxe edition repertoire. The two-CD version will also be available on streaming services worldwide.

Laurie Anderson was on BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends to talk with host Clive Anderson about her new piece ARK: United States V, the premiere performances of which continue at Factory International's Aviva Studios in Manchester through Sunday, and more. You can hear the conversation here. The Quietus highlights ten key tracks from her catalog, from "O Superman"—"her most definitive track"—to "Flying at Night" from her new album, Amelia, "a poignant, moving reflection on what our heroes reveal about ourselves."

"Here you have the guy who is speaking to the universality of the human experience in every molecule," Ken Burns tells Walter Isaacson on PBS's Amanpour & Co. about the subject of his latest film, Leonardo da Vinci. Sarah Burns, his co-director on the film with David McMahon, adds: "I think it's entirely central to who Leonardo was, that he had these interests across such a wide spectrum, and he didn't see those things as being separate. To him, all of these things were related and part of his larger effort to just understand the universe and everything he could about the human experience, the human body, and how all of these things are connected." You can watch their conversation here. You can watch LEONARDO da VINCI on PBS and hear Caroline Shaw's original score now.