Composer Tristan Perich, whose Drift Multiply, for 50 violins and 50-channel 1-bit electronics, was released on New Amsterdam and Nonesuch Records earlier this month, discussed the piece and recording—which both Uncut and the New Yorker call "mesmerizing" and the Wire calls "unapologetically beautiful"—with conductor Douglas Perkins in a live, online Q&A moderated by Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti. You can watch the conversation again here.

Rob Mazurek's new album with Exploding Star Orchestra, Dimensional Stardust, is out now via International Anthem / Nonesuch Records. Mazurek arranged his pieces for eleven musicians, including Jeff Parker, and commissioned his long-time lyrics collaborator Damon Locks to draft original texts for the songs. The album recalls an array of Mazurek’s symphonic­ influences, from Béla Bartók to Morton Feldman to Gil Evans to Sun Ra to Pedro Santos to Bill Dixon to The Art Ensemble of Chicago. Opting to focus on tight ensemble orchestration over passages of open improvisation, he distills an orchestra of explosive improvisers into a graceful group exercise in melodic minimalism.

Portuguese singer Mariza celebrates the 20th anniversary of her career and the centenary of the late Queen of Fado, Amália Rodrigues, with Mariza Sings Amália, her first full album of classics, available in the US on January 29. Though Mariza has sung pieces from Amália’s repertoire since the start of her career, this is the first complete album pairing the work of the late, great voice of 20th-century popular song and the singer who helped bring fado into the 21st century. "This the best way I can find to pay my tribute to Amália," says Mariza, "and to thank her for the legacy and inspiration she gave us." Mariza celebrates the album release with a livestreamed performance via NYC's Town Hall on January 29.

k.d. lang's 2008 Nonesuch album, Watershed, declared "a masterpiece" by the Times, is now available on vinyl for the first time (December 4 outside the US). As the title suggests, Watershed represented a milestone in lang’s career. For the first time, she assumed the role of producer, as well as writer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist. “Watershed is like a culmination of everything I’ve done," lang said; "there’s a little bit of jazz, a little country, a little of the Ingénue sound, a little Brazilian touch ... I didn’t feel the need to be genre-specific because this experience felt so wide open."

Mountain Man will perform three unique, ticketed streaming concerts on three Thursdays next month—December 3, 10, and 17—for their Live From the Garden series. The band filmed the shows in North Carolina: in the woods, at home, and by the fire. Each night has a different set list. Tickets are on sale now.

Joachim Cooder has released a video for his album Over That Road I'm Bound featuring an excerpt from the album track "Over That Road I'm Bound to Go" by children's book author Barney Saltzberg. "Barney is one of our favorite children’s book authors and illustrators," Cooder says. "After meeting backstage at a show I was playing in San Francisco we began sending each other books and music. One day he sent me this video. It hit such a perfect tone for the song.” You can watch it here.

Congratulations to Yola, who has been nominated for two UK Americana Awards: UK Artist of the Year and UK Song of the Year for "I Don't Wanna Lie," from the digital deluxe edition of her Dan Auerbach–produced solo debut album, Walk Through Fire. Yola won both UK Americana Awards for which she was nominated last year: UK Artist of the Year and UK Album of the Year for Walk Through Fire. The sixth-annual UK Americana Awards will be presented as part of the virtual AmericanaFest UK in January 2021.

Lianne La Havas was the guest on the Twitch show The Needle Drop. She spoke with host Anthony Fantano about her new, self-titled album. You can watch the conversation here.

Joachim Cooder is the guest on the latest episode of WNYC / New Sounds' Soundcheck, hosted by John Schaefer, to discuss his recently released Nonesuch debut album, Over That Road I'm Bound. Cooder, on electric mbira and vocals, is joined by his father Ry on guitar for special live, duo performances of songs from the new album. Over That Road I'm Bound "is full of inventive arrangements of songs by Uncle Dave Macon, an early 20th century songster," says Schaefer. "One of the most pleasant surprises of a year that has been full of unpleasant surprises." You can hear the conversation and performances here.

Tristan Perich’s Drift Multiply, for 50 violins and 50-channel 1-bit electronics, is out now on New Amsterdam and Nonesuch Records. The piece, Perich’s largest work to date, is conducted by Douglas Perkins. Scored as one hundred individual lines of music, the piece blends violins and speakers into a cascading tapestry of tone, harmony, and noise. The violins perform from sheet music, while the speakers are each connected to custom-built circuit boards programmed to output 1-bit audio, the most basic digital waveforms made of just ones and zeroes. "Unapologetically beautiful," says The Wire. "Mesmerising," says Uncut.

The soundtrack to the Tim Burton–directed film of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, first released on Nonesuch in 2007, receives its first-ever vinyl edition in a two-LP set out now. The film, which won the Golden Globe for Best Picture, is an adaptation by John Logan of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s musical, starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and the late Alan Rickman. "Something close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme—I am tempted to say evil—genius," exclaimed the New York Times' A.O. Scott. "This Sweeney is a bloody wonder," raved Rolling Stone's Peter Travers, "intimate and epic, horrific and heart-rending as it flies on the wings of Sondheim's most thunderously exciting score."

While many of us can't go out to take in great live music, here are some events taking place online to enjoy while staying home this weekend: Jeremy Denk performs Schumann, Mazzoli, and Brahms for the University of Washington's Meany Center; Tigran Hamasyan performs from The Call Within for EFG London Jazz Festival online; Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi perform from there is no Other for UC Santa Barbara; Punch Brothers perform the first of two consecutive Sunday night concerts from Blackbird Studio in Nashville; and k.d. lang can be heard on BBC Radio 2's In Concert 50.