Journal
- Tuesday, November 19, 2024
"Here you have the guy who is speaking to the universality of the human experience in every molecule," Ken Burns tells Walter Isaacson on PBS's Amanpour & Co. about the subject of his latest film, Leonardo da Vinci. Sarah Burns, his co-director on the film with David McMahon, adds: "I think it's entirely central to who Leonardo was, that he had these interests across such a wide spectrum, and he didn't see those things as being separate. To him, all of these things were related and part of his larger effort to just understand the universe and everything he could about the human experience, the human body, and how all of these things are connected." You can watch their conversation here. You can watch LEONARDO da VINCI on PBS and hear Caroline Shaw's original score now.
Journal Topics: Television, Video
- Friday, February 22, 2019
Sam Amidon will join Bruce Hornsby as special guest on his tour of the Eastern US in June. The concerts begin at Charleston Music Hall in South Carolina and continue in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, upstate New York, and New Hampshire. Amidon and saxophonist Sam Gendel tour the West Coast starting this Monday.
Journal Topics: Artist News, On TourThursday, February 21, 2019A Thousand Thoughts, a live documentary with the Kronos Quartet, written and directed by filmmakers Sam Green and Joe Bini—which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018 and has been performed around the world—will continue to tour the US in the coming weeks and months: in Urbana, Nashville, Austin, Detroit, and New York City. The multimedia performance piece blends live music and narration with archival footage and filmed interviews to tell Kronos's story. "It's as magical an amalgamation as you can imagine," exclaims the Los Angeles Times.
Journal Topics: Artist News, Film, On TourThursday, February 21, 2019Pitchfork has published its list of The 50 Best Movie Scores of All Time, including four for which Nonesuch Records has released recordings: Jonny Greenwood's There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread and Philip Glass's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (featuring Kronos Quartet) and Koyaanisqatsi.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsThursday, February 21, 2019Rostam, whose solo debut album, Half-Light, was released on Nonesuch in September 2017, celebrated the album's anniversary with a show at the Fonda Theatre in LA last September. He has released a video from that night of a special extended version of the album's title track, performed with a string quartet. Each group member takes a solo turn that quotes from a famous melody, including the Gaelic tune " Sí Bheag, Sí Mhór," Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," the Shaker song "Simple Gifts," and Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights." You can watch it here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, VideoFriday, February 15, 2019This long weekend in the US, Joshua Redman, Brian Blade, Scott Colley, Ron Miles bring Still Dreaming to the Barbican in London ... Laurie Anderson takes part in Pitchfork's Midwinter in Chicago … Emmylou Harris performs on Cayamo … Steve Reich’s works are performed around the world, from Hong Kong to Sydney to London …
Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend EventsThursday, February 14, 2019Yola's debut solo album, Walk Through Fire, out next Friday, February 22, on Easy Eye Sound, is streaming in full all week as an NPR First Listen. Yola's "sonic palette, which spans country, folk, classic soul and '70s-era Britpop; her emotive songwriting, which oscillates between vulnerability and chest-pounding empowerment; and her truly powerful voice," says NPR Music's Brittney McKenna, "abounds on Walk Through Fire, ... [which] showcases Yola's otherworldly vocals and compelling songwriting." McKenna concludes: "It's the work of an artist sure to stun audiences for years to come."
Journal Topics: Artist News, WebWednesday, February 13, 2019David Byrne's Nonesuch Records debut album, Grown Backwards, first released on March 16, 2004, will make its vinyl debut almost 15 years later, on March 15, 2019. The double-vinyl edition is the original album plus six additional tracks, including a duet with Caetano Veloso on their song "Dreamworld." It's "one of Byrne's most rewarding experiments yet," said the Guardian. "It fits alongside the best of his career and adds another solid release to a solo catalog which will hopefully become more cherished in time," said Pitchfork in 2004. "In 20 years, as we straighten our faces with botulism, braces, and stem cells, the album will stand up." Pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsWednesday, February 13, 2019Mountain Man stopped by NPR to perform a Tiny Desk Concert of songs from its Nonesuch debut album, Magic Ship. You can watch it here. "Mountain Man is the perfect band for a Tiny Desk concert," says host Bob Boilen. "These three women make the most intimate music; and behind the desk, [their] voices were the stars." He goes on to say that "there's a true kinship that happens in this trio ... There's no other band like them." Mountain Man resumes its US tour in March and has just announced several new dates in May and June.
Journal Topics: Artist News, On Tour, Video, WebTuesday, February 12, 2019Lake Street Dive has added several new headlining shows to its spring and summer tour schedule, as well as several co-headlining concerts with The Wood Brothers. The new dates begin in Raleigh on June 7 and include shows in Virginia, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Colorado, Idaho, and Nevada. They follow Lake Street Dive's European tour in April and come before and after the band's shows with The Avett Brothers.
Journal Topics: Artist News, On TourMonday, February 11, 2019Congratulations to Punch Brothers, Laurie Anderson, and Kronos Quartet, all of whom won Grammy Awards on Sunday! Punch Brothers' new album, All Ashore, won the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album, the band's first Grammy Award. Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet's collaboration Landfall won the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music / Small Ensemble Performance, Anderson's first Grammy Award.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsMonday, February 11, 2019Gabriel Kahane will bring music from his Nonesuch debut album, Book of Travelers, to Europe on tour this April. The tour begins with performances of the complete 8980: Book of Travelers work from which the album was drawn in Paris and Lyon, followed by concerts in London, Dublin, Glasgow, Genk, Amsterdam, Brussels, The Hague, Berlin, and Nantes. Before then, Kahane has shows in the US and tours as special guest of Punch Brothers.
Journal Topics: Artist News, On TourFriday, February 8, 2019Jeremy Denk's new album, c.1300–c.2000, is out now. The double album presents a centuries-long story of constantly emerging possibilities and styles of musical expression, an evolution drawn in a single arc by the music of twenty-four different composers, from Guillaume de Machaut to György Ligeti. "A piano recital covering 700 years of music: by most accepted definitions, that ought to be not just an oxymoron but an impossibility," says the Telegraph. "But the usual barriers fall whenever Jeremy Denk is at the keyboard ... Quite exhilarating." "Full of contrast and surprise," says the Observer, "this is a richly personal gallery of sound."
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist News