HBO has released the official trailer for David Byrne’s American Utopia, which will debut October 17 at 8pm ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max. You can watch it here. The special event, directed by Spike Lee, presents a one-of-a-kind, dynamic film that gives audiences access to Byrne’s critically-acclaimed Broadway show that played to sold-out, record-breaking audiences. The filmed version was recorded during its late 2019 to early 2020 run at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre in New York City.

Multidisciplinary abstractivist and auteur Rob Mazurek will release a new album with Exploding Star Orchestra, Dimensional Stardust, via International Anthem / Nonesuch Records on November 20, 2020. The album track "A Wrinkle in Time Sets Concentric Circles Reeling" is available today; the video by Mikel Patrick Avery can be seen here. Mazurek arranged his pieces for eleven musicians 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.

Brad Mehldau's new album, Suite: April 2020, is now available on CD and standard vinyl, following the release of the digital and limited-edition deluxe vinyl editions earlier this year. While sheltering at home with his family in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic this spring, Mehldau wrote twelve new songs about what he was experiencing; he was able to record them safely in an Amsterdam studio, along with interpretations of three tunes that mean a great deal to him. One thousand numbered and signed copies of the deluxe edition were sold, with a minimum of $90 from each sale donated to the Jazz Foundation of America’s COVID-19 Musician’s Emergency Fund. Brad Mehldau has several solo concerts in Europe ahead.

Vagabon has released a new version of her song "Home Soon," featured in the new Lionsgate film Antebellum, starring Janelle Monáe. The song was originally released on Vagabon's critically acclaimed self-titled album, which Clash called an “indie-pop masterpiece.” The new mix can be heard here.

Rostam, in celebration of the three-year anniversary of his Nonesuch debut, Half-Light, has released an acoustic version of the album's title track. The song, which was originally released as part of a compilation album benefitting Fair Fight, features Rostam solo and multi-tracked on guitar, drums, piano, hammond organ, and bass.

Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joachim Cooder has released "Over That Road I'm Bound to Go," the latest track from his forthcoming Nonesuch debut album, Over That Road I'm Bound, due October 2. You can watch a video here and download the track with pre-orders of the album, along with the previously released tune "Come Along Buddy."

Reasons to Be Cheerful, the solutions-based online magazine founded by David Byrne, has announced We Are Not Divided, a six-week collaborative journalistic exploration of our capacity to overcome division. We Are Not Divided tells the stories of places and institutions that are succeeding in overcoming division. The project launches today and runs through November 2.

Yola was on Late Night with Seth Meyers last night, for a special performance of Nina Simone’s "To Be Young, Gifted and Black," recorded from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. You can watch the performance here.

We Are Who We Are, a new series from Luca Guadagnino, the director of Call Me By Your Name and I Am Love, premieres on HBO and HBO Max tonight. As with many of Guadagnino's projects, the new show features several recordings by composer John Adams, starting with a selection from his 1995 song play I Was Looking At the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky on tonight's episode, and more in the weeks ahead.

Lake Street Dive's Lounge Around Sounds Variety Hour, which brought some joy and silliness to the early months of the COVID-19 lockdown, will return for three nights of music and laughter this autumn: the first show on September 21, a Halloween special on October 28, and a virtual Thanksgiving gathering on November 23. These are ticketed events with several packages available, including an exclusive Lounge Around Sounds t-shirt.

Devendra Banhart is on the latest episode of NPR's Alt.Latino. He spoke with host Felix Contreras and producer Isabella Gomez Sarmiento about his new EP, Vast Ovoid, exploring the difference between disappointment and disillusion; examining pre-COVID art under current conditions; and embracing the strong bond he feels with the Grateful Dead, whose song "Franklin's Tower" he covered for Amazon Music. You can hear their conversation here.

The Staves have released "Trying," the second track from the British trio this year, following last month’s release of "Nazareth." "I wanted to write a song about the state of things in the world and how broken our ability to communicate with each other had become as a society," Camilla Staveley-Taylor says of the new track, "but it became impossible as I was writing to separate my personal life from the broader message ... I feel like trying is what we spend most of our lives doing really. Just trying our best."