Nonesuch Records releases pianist Tigran Hamasyan's label debut album, Mockroot, on February 17, 2015, available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store. Mockroot features Hamasyan on piano, voice, keyboards, synths and sound effects, Sam Minaie on electric bass, and Arthur Hnatek on drums and live electronics. The album comprises new tracks written by Hamasyan, as well as his arrangements of traditional Armenian songs. Although trained as a classical and jazz musician, Tigran Hamasyan draws on a wide range of influences, including Armenian folk music, rock, electronica, poetry, and more.

Richard Linklater's Boyhood, which the Washington Post just named the #1 Best Movie of the Year, has been nominated for five Film Independent Spirit Awards: Best Feature, Best Director for Richard Linklater, Best Supporting Female for Patricia Arquette, Best Supporting Male for Ethan Hawke, and Best Editing for Sandra Adair. Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice, which was not eligible for individual nominations this year, was selected to receive the Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. Winners of the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards will be announced on February 21 in a ceremony broadcast live on IFC. Nonesuch will have release the soundtracks to both films.

The recordings made by Abelardo Barroso with Orquesta Sensación in Havana during the 1950s represent one of the pinnacles of the golden age of Cuban music. Now, on the album Cha Cha Cha, World Circuit, the label behind Buena Vista Social Club, releases a re-mastered selection of 14 of their most irresistible recordings, in North America via Nonesuch Records. The Guardian gives Cha Cha Cha four stars, calling it both "another reminder of Cuba’s extraordinary musical history" and "almost uncannily contemporary."

A new, five-track digital EP is out now, featuring music from the recording sessions for the album Toumani & Sidiki, a rare father-and-son collaboration between kora master Toumani Diabaté and his son Sidiki, the instrument’s emerging star. The EP extends the collection and explores further what happens "when two geniuses bridge generations" (Los Angeles Times).

Composer Jacob Cooper's Nonesuch debut album, Silver Threads, will be featured in Best of 2014: New Music, an evening of live music and conversation presented by Q2 Music at The Greene Space in New York City December 2. Soprano Mellissa Hughes, who performs on the album, will perform excerpts from its eponymous six-song cycle and will also talk with host Nadia Sirota, as will Cooper and the evening's other performers and composers of what Q2 calls the "riveting, jaw-droppingly gorgeous new recordings" being presented.

Rhiannon Giddens and her fellow New Basement Tapes members are featured on Showtime's Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued ... John Adams’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary receives stage premiere in London ... Robert Plant, Ry Cooder are on Austin City Limits' Americana awards special ... Sam Amidon tours Germany ... Olivia Chaney is in London ... Dr. John, Allen Toussaint are featured on HBO's Foo Fighters Sonic Highways ... Tigran Hamasyan tours France ... Kronos Quartet performs Reich at Janáček Brno Festival ... Pat Metheny Unity Group tours East Coast ... Randy Newman concludes US tour ... Robert Plant tours UK ... Joshua Redman Trio plays Chicago ... 

Robert Plant is the guest on the latest episode of WBEZ's Sound Opinions, discussing his new album, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar, which MOJO has just named one of the Best Albums of 2014. You can listen to the episode and watch the full interview here. Plant also spoke with The Quietus about the new album, which the site calls "his most fully realized solo album to date" and "a superb melting pot of influences ... Plant is forging ever forward while still retaining the exploratory vision that made his former alma mater such a unique proposition."

Congratulations to Caetano Veloso, who has won the 2014 Latin Grammy Award for Best Brazilian Song for "A Bossa Nova É Foda." The song is on his new release in Brazil, Multishow Ao Vivo Caetano Veloso Abraçaço, and appeared earlier on his latest studio album, Abraçaço, released this year in North America on Nonesuch Records. This is Veloso's 11th Latin Grammy Award, following last year's win for Best Singer-Songwriter Album for the South American release of Abraçaço. Additionally, Veloso was named the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year in 2012.

Conor Oberst and Alison Krauss are the latest performers announced as part of the lineup of artists taking part in The Life & Songs of Emmylou Harris: An All-Star Concert Celebration at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, on January 10, 2015. In addition to the newly announced performers, the lineup includes Harris, Rodney Crowell, Iron & Wine, Shawn Colvin, Sara Watkins, Kris Kristofferson, Joan Baez, Sheryl Crow, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Mavis Staples, Martina McBride, John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams, Trampled By Turtles, Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Shovels & Rope, and The Milk Carton Kids. 

Austin City Limits (ACL) heads to Nashville for a special broadcast featuring performance highlights from this year’s Americana Honors & Awards. ACL Presents: Americana Music Festival 2014 premieres this Saturday, November 22, on PBS and includes performances from Robert Plant (with Patty Griffin) and Ry Cooder (with Flaco Jimenez and as part of the evening's house band), among many others. The show was recorded live at the Americana Music Association's 13th Annual Honors & Awards ceremony at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium in September.

Nonesuch will release Jonny Greenwood’s soundtrack to Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, Inherent Vice, December 15, with the vinyl to follow March 3. An adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel, Inherent Vice, in theaters starting December 12, is set in the tail end of the psychedelic ’60s and stars Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, and Owen Wilson. The soundtrack features nine compositions by Greenwood, an unreleased Radiohead tune performed by members of Supergrass, plus other recordings from the movie’s era. Additional performers include The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Neil Young, Can, and The Marketts, among others. The Inherent Vice soundtrack is available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store.

Rhiannon Giddens, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and founding member of Carolina Chocolate Drops, makes her solo recording debut with Tomorrow Is My Turn, due February 10 on Nonesuch Records (vinyl due March 3). The album, produced by T Bone Burnett, features a broad range of songs from genres as diverse as gospel, jazz, blues, and country, including works made famous by Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, Odetta, and Nina Simone. Nonesuch Store pre-orders on CD and vinyl include an instant download of the album tracks "Don't Let It Trouble Your Mind" and "Shake Sugaree" (both of which you can hear here) and an exclusive print autographed by Giddens.