The complete soundtrack recording of Laurie Anderson's newest piece, Heart of a Dog, is due from Nonesuch Records on October 23, 2015. Commissioned by the European TV network Arte, the feature film—her first in 30 years—is a personal essay on joy and heartbreak and remembering and forgetting, at the heart of which is a lament for her late beloved dog Lolabelle. The Nonesuch album is the full audio recording of the film, including all music and spoken text. 

Lianne La Havas, who is touring North America, stopped by the NPR studios to perform a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR Music, including two songs from Blood, her new album—"What You Don't Do" and "Unstoppable"—as well as the song "Forget" from her debut album. "Her music works for any activity, any emotion," says NPR's Suraya Mohamed. "La Havas is soulful yet playful, raw and vulnerable in a commanding kind of way, and her new second album, Blood, is as amazing as the first ... If you're like me, you will never get enough." Watch the set here. And catch La Havas on CBS This Morning Saturday this weekend.

St Germain (aka Ludovic Navarre)'s new, self-titled album, out next Friday, October 9, is streaming in full till then in the US as an NPR First Listen. The record marries percussive grooves, which have always been central to his sound, with a new element: traditional Malian music. "Navarre remains a sly master of the textural mix; a producer whose sweeping effects and atmospheric auras become part of the structure of the tunes," says NPR's Tom Moon. Malian guitarist Guimba Kouyate "thrives within St. Germain's sonic schemes; his terse rejoinders between vocal phrases are as spellbinding as his full-on solos." Moon concludes: "[S]ome tracks sound like they could have happened live in the studio. In those moments, everyone involved is seeking not just the right notes, but also the most apt expression; those sounds that lift the music into the higher spirit realms."

Brad Mehldau's 10 Years Solo Live eight-LP vinyl box set, due October 16, was featured on WNYC's New Sounds look at this month's new releases. The show opens with Massive Attack's "Teardrop" transitioning to Mehldau's own take on the song from the box set. It's a version "that I think is really brilliant," says host John Schaefer. "We begin with a new release that's due in two weeks, and it is so ambitious that we may well still be listening to it when we do next month's new releases program." Hear the show here.

Nonesuch Records President Bob Hurwitz has announced his intention to gradually step away from the day-to-day running of the label. Under his transition plan, Hurwitz, who has been head of the iconic label for the past 31 years, will remain President through the end of 2016. He will become Chairman Emeritus in January 2017. This move will allow Hurwitz to continue working at the label in an A&R capacity, including as Executive Producer on ten to twelve albums a year, while also being able to devote more time on a variety of ongoing interests, among which are teaching, writing, and archival projects. Hurwitz’s successor as President will be announced shortly.

This summer, Rhiannon Giddens was joined by Joe Henry on guitar, Tony Garnier on bass, Diego Schissi on piano, and Gustaf Llunggren on pedal steel on stage at the Aarhus Festival in Denmark. They performed "She's Got You," which Giddens also performs on her solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn. "I love this version for the dynamics," she says, "and the way we are all listening to each other with every fiber of our being." Giddens is currently touring the US.

The original Buena Vista Social Club album, produced by Ry Cooder and released in 1997, became a worldwide cultural phenomenon and helped to introduce Cuba’s rich musical heritage and pre-revolutionary past to the world. Now, almost two decades later, World Circuit Records reissues the album on vinyl as a double-LP on October 30, distributed in North America by Nonesuch Records. For this vinyl reissue, the studio recordings have been cut from the original analogue half-inch tapes and mastered by Bernie Grundman (engineer of the original release), and pressed on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl.

The Arcs made their television debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Friday, joined by Mariachi Flor de Toloache to perform "Outta My Mind," the first single off Yours, Dreamily, their debut album. "With the music video's psychedelic light show emanating in the background," says Rolling Stone, "the Arcs delivered a riveting take on the track, including a killer Auerbach guitar solo." Watch it here. The band, who played a sold-out show at NYC's Bowery Ballroom Saturday night streamed live on Yahoo, tours Europe in November and North America in December.

London-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Olivia Chaney joins The Decemberists as their special guest for several shows in the US this week. The shows begin at the Iroquois Amphitheater in Louisville tonight, followed by stops in Indianapolis, Madison, Dallas, and Austin, for an ACL Festival Late Night Show, on Saturday. Chaney rounds out her US tour with a solo show at McCabe's in Santa Monica on Sunday.

The Arcs make TV debut on Colbert; their sold-out NYC show streams live on Yahoo ... Laurie Anderson is on PBS's American Masters … Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club takes "Adios" tour to Canada … Ry Cooder hits Southwest with Sharon White, Ricky Skaggs … Jeremy Denk plays Bach in Britain … Rhiannon Giddens is in Durham and DC … Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell's US tour winds westward … Lianne La Havas plays NYC … Brad Mehldau heads to Germany … Natalie Merchant joins Bard Conservatory Orchestra … Pat Metheny plays Blue Note Jazz Festival in Japan … Punch Brothers play festival sets … and more …

Rhiannon Giddens, currently touring the US, recently participated in the NPR Music panel discussion Songs We Love: Americana Fest Edition. The event was led by NPR music critic Ann Powers, who assembled what she called her "dream team"— Giddens, Patty Griffin, Shakey Graves—for a conversation and performances of some of their favorite songs. Giddens is "one of the great song interpreters of our time," says Powers. "She has an exquisite voice. But just as important is her sensibility, her sense of history, her innate feminism, womanism, and a brilliant originality." You can hear it all here.

Following its October 8 opening at the New York Film Festival, Paul Thomas Anderson's new film, Junun, will have its exclusive worldwide premiere on MUBI on October 9. Anderson joined Jonny Greenwood and Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur on a trip to Rajasthan, India, where Greenwood (with the Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich) and a group of musicians from across the Indian sub-continent worked on an album to be released by Nonesuch in November. Additional details on the album will be announced shortly.