Composer Caroline Shaw's new album, Narrow Sea, featuring Sō Percussion, Dawn Upshaw, and Gilbert Kalish's performance of the title piece—five parts, each a new setting of a text from The Sacred Harp, the 19th-century collection of shape-note hymns—is due next Friday, January 22, on Nonesuch. Here, the artists talk with writer Matthew Guerrieri about the album, which also includes Sō Percussion's performance of Shaw's Taxidermy. Find out why she tells Guerrieri: "I was telling a friend, half-jokingly, that, in a lot of my music, I’m trying to figure out a way to talk about death and mortality, or think about it."

Composer Adam Guettel's theatrical song cycle Myths and Hymns, the recording of which was released on Nonesuch in 1999, is the central project of MasterVoices' 2020–21 season. In an online staging conceived by the ensemble's Artist Director, Ted Sperling—the music director of the original Nonesuch recording—new short musical films will illustrate the protagonist’s exploration of Flight, Work, Love, and Faith over twenty-three episodes. The first chapter—featuring dozens of artists, including Julia Bullock, Renée Fleming, Norm Lewis, Joshua Henry, José Llana, and Kelli O'Hara—premiered last night and can be seen here. The three subsequent chapters will stream on February 24, April 14, and May 26.

Lake Street Dive's new album, Obviously, will be released March 12 on Nonesuch. The album was produced by Mike Elizondo, a songwriting collaborator for Dr. Dre, Eminem, and 50 Cent and record producer for Fiona Apple and Mary J. Blige, among others. "Mike encouraged us to make bolder arrangement choices, take those chances and try those things," says bassist Bridget Kearney. "The record really is a success in what we set out to do: continue to challenge ourselves, continue to grow, and do things we’ve never done before." A new single, “Nobody’s Stopping You Now,” is out now, as is the previously released track "Making Do"; you can watch videos for both here. Nonesuch Store pre-orders also include a limited-edition, autographed print while supplies last.

Rhiannon Giddens spoke with North Carolina singer-songwriter and social activist Laurelyn Dossett for the Blue Ridge Music Center's new online series A Place in the Band: Women in Bluegrass & American Roots Music. In the ten-part series, a partnership with The Bluegrass Situation, Dossett speaks with women in the music business about people who have inspired them, issues they've encountered specific to women in the industry, and changes they've seen over the years. You can watch the conversation here.

The Staves have announced a live-streamed, ticketed event for February 5, the release date of their new album, Good Woman. The performance, filmed at the London venue Lafayette, will celebrate The Staves’ musical career, from their debut album to the new record, with a mix of intimate stripped back performances and songs with a full band. "Given the current lockdown restrictions we sadly had to cancel our Christmas show at short notice," says the band, "so we wanted to find a way to play live for everyone. We are beyond thrilled to be performing again and to bring something new to our fans."

Four conversation between Nonesuch Chairman Emeritus Bob Hurwitz and artists, presented last October for In Our Time, a series of online discussions he conceived for the New School's College of Performing Arts and UCLA, are now available to watch here. Hurwitz speaks with four artists whose creative lives and work have left an indelible mark in music, and arts and culture globally: Caetano Veloso, Julia Bullock, Laurie Anderson, and Cécile McLorin Salvant.

Vagabon has teamed up with Courtney Barnett for a cover inspired by Karen Dalton's version of "Reason to Believe," which was originally written and recorded by Tim Hardin in 1965 and covered by a wide range of artists since. After discovering Dalton's version, "I became obsessed," says Vagabon's Lætitia Tamko, "and so a few days after discovering it, I was encouraged to record a cover of it in my garage." Barnett adds "I'm a huge fan of Vagabon and Karen Dalton so this was a dream. They both have a voice that absolutely knocks the wind out of me." Vagabon has announced a livestream on January 29; tickets are available now.

The Staves have released an intimate live performance video of "Satisfied," a song from their upcoming album, Good Woman, due February 5. You can watch it here.

Lianne La Havas is the guest on the latest episode of NPR's World Cafe. She talks with host Raina Douris about her new, self-titled album and gives an intimate acoustic performance of four album tracks: "Can't Fight," "Weird Fishes," "Paper Thin," and "Bittersweet." Douris calls Lianne La Havas "an album more confident and more personal than anything she has ever done before." You can hear the conversation and performances here.

As 2020 draws to a close, and the Nonesuch Journal takes a bit of a hiatus till the start of what we hope will be a much happier, healthier new year, it's time to take a look back and remember all of the great and diverse music made by Nonesuch artists over the past year—despite and in some cases in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Nonesuch artists and their recent Nonesuch releases have made music critics' and fans' year-end best lists. Here, in words and music and in chronological order, is a look back at the year in Nonesuch music, in gratitude.

Lianne La Havas has released Live at the Roundhouse, an EP of five tracks she performed during an intimate live-streamed concert from the famed London venue in July.  The EP includes four songs from her new, self-titled album, as well as “Midnight” from her previous album, Blood. You can watch La Havas’ Roundhouse performance of “Bittersweet” from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s #PlayAtHome series here. Vocalist Frida Touray joins for the song and on “Midnight.”

The Black Keys' Brothers (Deluxe Remastered Anniversary Edition), an expanded version of their watershed 2010 multi-platinum, Grammy-winning sixth studio album, is out now in the US and Canada and on January 1, 2021, in all other territories, via Nonesuch Records, on which the record is newly available throughout the world. To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Brothers' new edition includes three added bonus songs—“Keep My Name Outta Your Mouth,” “Black Mud Part II,” and “Chop and Change”—available in three formats: a 7” box set, a 2-LP set, and a CD.