John Adams's long-awaited memoir, Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life, is set for release in early October, and this week, The New Yorker has published an excerpt from the book in the article "Sonic Youth: A Composer Finds His Voice." In the magazine's podcast, John discusses the topic, from his early years as a composer in San Francisco through his 1981 breakout piece, Harmonium. In conjunction with the book's launch, Nonesuch will release a two-disc retrospective of the same name featuring some of his best-known works. Adams's latest opera, A Flowering Tree, is available for pre-order now.

Last week, Chris Thile joined Edgar Meyer for the bassist's annual Aspen Music Festival recital. The Aspen Times describes Meyer's playing as the sort that leads his fellow bass players to "just blink in wonder" and Thile as "a mandolin player with similarly amazing chops." The concert, which included several songs from the duo's debut album, out on Nonesuch next month, featured "several incandescent moments," reads the review, "when the two musicians’ technical skill and musical inventiveness combined to produce something unique."

Sam Phillips's latest album, Don't Do Anything, was welcomed with critical praise upon its release earlier this summer. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle adds to the kudos, calling her "a monument to artistic vision" in the mold of Tom Waits. The San Antonio Current also praises the new record, saying Sam's writing style "works beautifully, especially with the uncanny title track, one of the most remarkable love songs ever penned."

Ry Cooder talks to Rolling Stone about I, Flathead, the third in his "California trilogy." The magazine calls the album "light on flash, heavy on feeling." Ry also gives some insight into the forthcoming release of the live album Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall for the tenth anniversary of the group's performance at the Hall. "That was an amazing show," he says. "It has tremendous energy and verve but no aggression at all."

Here is our weekly list of just some of the many events going on across the globe this weekend featuring Nonesuch artists ...

Steve Reich's work will be the highlight of this weekend's events at the Edinburgh International Festival, with the UK premiere of Steve Reich Evening, a collection of pieces Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker has set to Reich's music over the past 25 years. Scotland on Sunday compares the "long and fruitful history" between the two artists to that of Stravinsky and Balanchine, Cage and Cunningham, calling the new work "a comprehensive and thrilling focus on the relationship between two modern masters." Also this weekend, Reich and Beryl Korot chair the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild's annual Gala honoring, among others, Garry Kvistad, a member of Steve Reich and Musicians.

It was a remarkable week for Wilco shows, with two stand-outs coming from nearly three-hour sets each at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, and Brooklyn's McCarren Park Pool the following night. The Boston Globe says the crowd at Tanglewood witnessed "a pitch-perfect tangle of earthy comforts and perilous adventure, during a stellar set from the planet's most radical roots band ... a phenomenally dynamic machine." The New York Press says the Brooklyn set showed that the band's evolution from alt.country pioneers "has brought us one of the best rock bands alive today."

Randy Newman is the subject of a feature article from Newsweek that describes Randy's new album, Harps and Angels, as "an immensely gratifying CD, one that recalls his early work without mimicking it." ABC News calls it "a remarkably strong record" and compares Randy, "a great storyteller," to the likes of Bob Dylan and Tom Waits: "an ace writer who goes by his own set of rules."

Randy Newman was recently asked by Blender magazine to comment on the two Presidential candidates' lists of their top 10 favorite songs. Specifically, he was asked which candidate would get his vote "based solely on this list," to which Randy responded, in a statement that was edited down for the article, that, while he likes Senator McCain's musical choices, "you can't tell anything about a person from the music they like."

Congratulations to Randy Newman, whose new release, Harps and Angels, debuted at #30 on Billboard's Top 200, a career high. Randy is SPIN magazine's Artist of the Day for the "brilliantly written pop standards" on Harps and Angels, a "musically, as well as lyrically, intricate and intriguing" album from "one of the most respected songwriters this century." The Cleveland Free Times concludes that "Harps and Angels is both a great Randy Newman album—which is an impressive feat on its own—and a brilliant and important album in the wider context of popular music."

Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer will preview their forthcoming, self-titled debut duo album tonight in a special concert at the Aspen Music Festival. On the record, due out September 23 and available now for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store, are 12 original songs by the two musicians. There's also a deluxe version that includes a 50-minute DVD with performances, rehearsals, and behind-the-scenes footage with Edgar and Chris. The Aspen Times says Chris's first Nonesuch record, Punch, with the Punch Brothers, takes "acoustic music to an appreciably higher level."

Dawn Upshaw begins a three-show run of performances at Lincoln Center of the US premiere of composer Kaija Saariaho's La Passion de Simone, an oratorio written for Upshaw based on the life of French French philosopher Simone Weil. The production, directed by Peter Sellars, is part of the Mostly Mozart Festival and includes Mostly Mozart debuts for the composer, dancer Michael Schumacher, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the London Voices vocal ensemble. The Independent (UK) calls the work a “magical union of words, music, and theater.”