Mandy Patinkin was on The Economist's The Economist Asks podcast. He talks with host Anne McElvoy about his performing career, being an activist, and his becoming a social media sensation at home with his family during lockdown. "The difference between working with a gifted person and working with a genius. A genius opens the doors to everyone else's thoughts and opinions, asks questions," Patinkin says of working with Stephen Sondheim. "What he did, similar to Shakespeare in my opinion, is he turned darkness into light," You can hear their conversation here.

Tyondai Braxton releases “Multiplay” on Nonesuch Records today. The new track features Braxton on electronics, and was recorded in his home studio in Bearsville, NY. Following last month’s release of “Dia" / "Phonolydian”—Braxton’s first new music in five years—“Multiplay” is the next in a series of new releases to continue through the year. The first performance of a three-show residency entitled Multiplay, at Public Records in Brooklyn, scheduled for January 12, has been postponed until May 4 and will feature a duo set between Braxton and Cibo Matto founder Yuka C. Honda. The other two shows are scheduled to take place as planned.

Vagabon (aka Laetitia Tamko) is the guest on the latest episode of the podcast Seek Treatment with Cat & Pat. She talks with hosts Catherine Cohen and Pat Regan, who ask three simple questions—"Who were you? Who are you? Who do you want to be?"—the answers to which lead the hosts to reply: "She contains multitudes." You can hear their conversation in the episode below.

Wilco's induction into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame, recorded live in Austin, Texas, on October 28, 2021, was broadcast on PBS in a special installment of the series this past weekend. The ceremony salutes Wilco and its fellow inductees, Lucinda Williams and Alejandro Escovedo, with performances by Jason Isbell, Rosanne Cash, Margo Price, Sheila E., Lenny Kaye, Japanese Breakfast and more. A special 90-minute online edition, including exclusive content from the celebration, with performances by John Doe, Terry Allen, and Bill Callahan, can be seen here, along with an excerpt from the special featuring a group performance of "California Stars."

David Byrne was on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers remotely to discuss American Utopia on Broadway, the adaptations he and the cast and crew made to keep the show going—in an "unchained" (aka unplugged) version—during recent Covid-19 outbreaks, and the Spike Lee–directed film of the show, which is up for a Grammy Award for Best Music Film. You can watch their conversation here.

As 2021 draws to a close, and the Nonesuch Journal takes a bit of a hiatus till the start of what we hope will be a happy, healthier new year, it's time to take a look back and remember all of the great and diverse music made by Nonesuch artists over the past year. Many of them have made year's best lists and are up for Grammy Awards. So here, in words and music and in chronological order, is a look back at the year in Nonesuch music, in gratitude.

All six parts of Laurie Anderson's Norton Lectures, Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds, are now available to watch again indefinitely. Given virtually over the course of the year on Zoom through the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard, the series examines the challenges faced by artists and citizens alike as culture is reinvented. "I tried to create, over these six talks, something that would be useful to you, a kind of portable philosophy," Anderson says in her introduction. "And you can tell me if that worked at all." You can watch it all here.

Cécile McLorin Salvant has released "Thunderclouds," from her Nonesuch debut album Ghost Song, due March 4; you can watch the video here. "I suffer from insomnia, and so do others in my family, and in one way this song is about having to suffer in darkness," she says. "It’s again celebrating something that is dark—that line, ‘Sometimes you have to gaze into a well to see the sky.’ It’s talking about looking down into the depths of a situation to truly see the beauty of it."

Jeff Parker’s solo guitar album Forfolks is now available on vinyl and digitally on International Anthem / Nonesuch Records, with the CD out next week. The album includes interpretations of Thelonious Monk's “Ugly Beauty” and the standard “My Ideal,” plus six original compositions: two earlier tunes, “Four Folks” and “La Jetée,” and four new loop-driven, stratiform works that marry melodic improvisation with electronic textures. As Parker says: “I am trying to create a sonic world for me to wander around in.” Parker is co-headlining a US tour with Steve Gunn this month and next spring and will perform at NYC Winter JazzFest and Big Ears Festival.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway have shared a live performance video of “She’ll Change,” the recently released track from Tuttle’s forthcoming Nonesuch debut. Filmed at Hartland Studios in Nashville, the video, which can be seen here, features Tuttle on guitar and vocals alongside her band of bluegrass virtuosos—mandolinist Dominick Leslie, banjoist Kyle Tuttle, fiddle player Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, and bassist Shelby Means. It was directed and edited by Michael Kessler, recorded and mixed by Ryan McFadden, and mastered by Edsel Holden.

Tyondai Braxton releases “Dia" / "Phonolydian”—his first new music in five years—on Nonesuch Records today. The two new tracks feature Braxton on electronics and were recorded in his home studio in Bearsville, New York. They mark the beginning in a series of new releases to continue through the new year. Braxton also announces Multiplay, a three-show residency at Public Records in Brooklyn comprising solo sets with special guests Leila Bordreuil and Lea Bertucci & Ben Vida in January and February, respectively, and a duo set with Greg Fox in March. 

The Magnetic Fields, who recently completed a seven-city tour of City Winery venues in the United States, will return to the road in April 2022 for a three-week tour of the United States and Canada. The twelve-city tour begins at the Tarrytown Music Hall in upstate New York on April 6, followed by stops in Northampton, Raleigh, Charlottesville, Toronto, Iowa City, Saint Paul, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.