Journal
- Friday, November 15, 2024
Donnacha Dennehy’s Land of Winter is out now. The piece, performed by the composer's longtime collaborators Alarm Will Sound and conductor Alan Pierson, explores the subtleties of Ireland’s seasons via twelve connected sections representing the months of the year. "It is the varying quality of light that truly demarcates the seasons," Dennehy says, "from the shorter days of grey or piercing light in the winter to the warmer but mercurial light of summer days that at solstice stretch almost to midnight. I like this play between light and time, and it is the major inspiration behind the piece." You can watch a video for “July" here.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist News, Video
- Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Punch Brothers, as part of the North American tour celebrating the release of their new album, The Phosphorescent Blues, performed for a sold-out crowd at Boston's House of Blues in March. The WGBH program Front Row Boston was there to capture the event. You can now watch the band perform several tracks from the new album and earlier favorites, interspersed with backstage interviews with the band, in the 90-minute video here. Up next on the tour: Bonnaroo and Telluride Bluegrass festivals in June.
Journal Topics: Artist News, VideoWednesday, April 29, 2015Celebrate Brooklyn!—one of New York City's longest running, free, outdoor performing arts festivals—has announced the complete line-up for this summer's concert series in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Among the featured performers this year are Nonesuch artists Punch Brothers, Rhiannon Giddens, and Sam Amidon with Bill Frisell. You can see the complete line-up in the highly-recommended announcement video posted here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, On TourWednesday, April 29, 2015The winners of the Songlines Music Awards 2015 have been announced, and among them are Kronos Quartet, which has won for Cross-Cultural Collaboration of the Year for its 40th anniversary release A Thousand Thoughts, and Toumani and Sidiki Diabaté, who were named Best Group of the Year for their father-son duo kora album, Toumani & Sidiki, released on World Circuit Records.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsTuesday, April 28, 2015Olivia Chaney's debut album, The Longest River, is out today. The Sunday Times of London calls it "a mesmerising debut." It earns four stars from MOJO; Observer, which calls it "an enchanting, stately creation"; and Irish Times, which says it's "a beautiful job of work ... a hugely rewarding listen." The Arts Desk exclaims: "Chaney’s voice has a remarkable clarity and purity, a lyrical and emotional strength that puts her up among the best—of her generation or those who came before." Chaney performs on BBC Radio 3's In Tune today and will tour the UK in May and North America in June.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsTuesday, April 28, 2015Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell have shared a new track, "You Can't Say We Didn't Try," from their forthcoming album, The Traveling Kind, due May 12; you can hear it here. That track and the album's title track, which was unveiled last month, are also available to download now with pre-orders of the album. Harris and Crowell kick off a tour of intimate shows starting next week in San Francisco.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsTuesday, April 28, 2015Two classics albums from World Circuit Records are now available on vinyl: the 2001 reissue of Orchestra Baobab's much sought-after 1982 debut, Pirates Choice, and Ali Farka Touré's Grammy Award-winning 1993 collaboration with Ry Cooder, Talking Timbuktu. Each is available on double 180-gram vinyl LPs from World Circuit, distributed in North America on Nonesuch Records, and can be found at your favorite local record shop and in the vinyl section of the Nonesuch Store.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsTuesday, April 28, 2015Paul Thomas Anderson's latest feature film, Inherent Vice, is available on Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD UltraViolet in the US today. An adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel of the same name, Inherent Vice is set in the tail end of the psychedelic ’60s and stars Oscar nominees Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, and Owen Wilson. Nonesuch Records released the soundtrack to Inherent Vice, which includes nine compositions by Jonny Greenwood, as well as "Spooks," an unreleased Radiohead tune performed with members of Supergrass, and recordings from the movie’s era. Performers include The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Neil Young, Can, and The Marketts.
Journal Topics: FilmMonday, April 27, 2015When Record Store Day took place earlier this month, included among the special releases were limited-edition vinyl from two Nonesuch artists: Robert Plant's 10" vinyl EP More Roar, with three tracks from his 2014 lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar world tour, and Steve Reich's Grammy Award-winning Music for 18 Musicians re-issued on two 180-gram vinyl LPs. A very limited number of both items is now available in the Nonesuch Store.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsMonday, April 27, 2015Rhiannon Giddens was the musical guest on CBS This Morning: Saturday, performing two songs from her recently released debut solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn—"Black Is the Color" and "She's Got You"—as well as "Spanish Mary," from the New Basement Tapes album Lost on the River. You can watch all three performances here. "With a voice so powerful it could scorch the rafters, Rhiannon Giddens has the pipes of a genuine diva. But her attitude is humble and her personality is down to earth," writes the Chicago Tribune of a recent tour stop. "With equal helpings of confidence and respect, she nimbly saluted her idols while giving their iconic work a fresh spin."
Journal Topics: Artist News, Television, VideoFriday, April 24, 2015Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet collaborate on Landfall in Paris ... Sam Amidon joins Sharon Van Etten in Leeds, England ... Timo Andres, David Kaplan perform piano four-hands in Brooklyn and DC ... Olivia Chaney plays in London ... Jeremy Denk makes Cleveland Orchestra debut ... Rhiannon Giddens tours Midwest ... Richard Goode performs at Carnegie Hall ... Robert Plant pays tribute to Lead Belly at Kennedy Center ... Steve Reich's Three Tales is performed in London ... Wilco plays New Orleans JazzFest ... and more ...
Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend EventsFriday, April 24, 2015Congratulations to Pat Metheny, who has been named the winner of the ECHO Jazz 2015 Award for International Instrumentalist of the Year, Guitar, for his album with Pat Metheny Unity Group, Kin (←→), released last year on Nonesuch Records. Metheny won an ECHO for Tap: John Zorn's Book of Angels Vol. 20 in 2014 and for Orchestrion in 2011.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsFriday, April 24, 2015Rokia Traoré has been named to the Jury of the 68th Cannes Film Festival, which will take place May 13–24, 2015. The nine-member Jury is led by its Presidents, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, and also includes Rossy de Palma, Sophie Marceau, Sienna Miller, Jake Gyllenhaal, Guillermo del Toro, and Xavier Dolan. It decides among the films in competition and select the prize winners, culminating in the Palme d’or, which will be announced on stage during the Festival Closing Ceremony on Sunday, May 24.
Journal Topics: Artist News