Pat Metheny's adventurous new "solo” recording, Orchestrion, is set for its Nonesuch CD release on January 26. The project pairs the composer-guitarist with a phalanx of remarkable, custom-made instruments played via solenoid switches and pneumatics. Now, for the first time, you can catch a glimpse of it all in action in a video at nonesuch.com/media. You can hear Pat discuss the project on the BBC's The Strand.

Steve Reich will join So Percussion in a performance of Clapping Music for an all-Reich program at Stanford University this Saturday. The concert, featuring the US premiere of Reich's latest piece, Mallet Quartet, is the culmination of a number of related events at Stanford this week, including a public conversation with Reich and Beryl Korot. The San Jose Mercury News calls it all "a welcome and rare opportunity for immersion in Reich's rhythmical realm."

While The Low Anthem has been busy prepping its next album, documenting it all on video, Magnet magazine named its Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, the 2009 Album of the Year, "a thrilling, romantic journey through Americana at its absolute finest." This month, the band begins its WOXY radio show and a European tour; its later US tour with the Avett Brothers has already begun to sell out.

k.d. lang releases her first-ever career retrospective, Recollection, 25 years after the release of her debut recording. The two-disc set will be available February 2 [now February 9] on Nonesuch. Recollection features 22 of lang’s most beloved recordings including an all-new interpretation of the Leonard Cohen classic “Hallelujah." The deluxe package includes a third disc of previously unreleased recordings—many performed live—as well as a bonus DVD of music videos and rarely seen live performance footage.

Allen Toussaint is set to make his long-awaited debut on the PBS series Austin City Limits this Saturday, January 9. The hour-long episode kicks off a string of new shows for the award-winning concert series. Toussaint and his band perform interpretations of jazz classics from his Grammy-nominated Nonesuch debut, The Bright Mississippi, as well as beloved Toussaint originals like “Working in the Coalmine” and “Southern Nights.”

Wilco will play a run of 16 concerts in Eastern US cities beginning in Miami on March 22 and culminating in Pittsburgh on April 11. The concerts are presented as An Evening with Wilco and will feature extended, varied sets exploring material from each of the accomplished Chicago sextet’s seven studio albums. The tour includes concerts in Clearwater, Savannah, Atlanta, Durham, Richmond, Bethesda, Montclair, Providence, Boston, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.

Over the past month or so, as most of the major publications, music magazines, and NPR programs have taken the occasion of the decade's end to look back at the best music of this year and the nine before it, the Nonesuch Journal has been making note as dozens of these best-of lists have included Nonesuch artists and albums. Now, as we prepare for our holiday break, and wish you a very happy holiday, we recap these accolades in this year- and decade-end review, and, in the image at left, remember all of the Nonesuch albums of the '00s.

Anne Midgette, the classical music critic for the Washington Post, has already named Alarm Will Sound's a/rhythmia among the year's best albums, and, for WNYC's Soundcheck, included John Adams's Dharma at Big Sur among the decade's best. Now, on her Post blog, she says of Adams, "if there was a composer to whom the decade belonged, I'd say it was him." Audiophile Audition gives his latest, Doctor Atomic Symphony, four stars.

Earlier this year, Elvis Costello was a guest performer at Allen Toussaint's Village Vanguard performances in celebration of his Nonesuch debut, The Bright Mississippi. Tonight, Toussaint returns the favor as he joins Nick Lowe, Richard Thompson, and Levon Helm for a once-in-a-lifetime jam session on Costello's Sundance Channel interview and performance show, Spectacle: Elvis Costello with ...

Two New York Times music critics have Nonesuch albums on their Top Ten lists: Rokia Traoré's Tchamantché and Oumou Sangare's Seya. The Washington Post has Alarm Will Sound's a/rhythmia in its Top Ten classical albums; the Denver Post has Richard Goode and John Adams. Two Boston Globe critics have Wilco (the album) on their lists, while others there add BlakRoc and Seya. MTV includes Wilco plus Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali. PopMatters and American Songwriter cite Wilco as well, while the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle lists Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi.

Today is the final day to order from the Nonesuch Store and take advantage of our Second Anniversary Sale—33 1/3% off the standard retail price on CDs, LPs, DVDs—before the holiday. Order today, December 21, by 9 PT EST, using rush shipping, to be sure your order arrives on time. Even after the holiday, the celebration continues, as we've extended the Anniversary Sale to last through New Year's.

The Wall Street Journal sees Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi as an example of "cause for optimism" in music this year. The Sunday Times places Amadou & Mariam's Dimanche à Bamako among the best pop/rock music of the '00s. Time Out includes Oumou Sangare's Seya and Christina Courtin's debut among the year's best albums and NYC performances by Toumani Diabaté and Wilco among the year's best shows. In "a phenomenal decade for world music," says WNYC, Ali Farka Touré's Savane is among the decade's best, with Youssou N'Dour's Egypt at No. 1.