Nonesuch Records will release an album of works by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki and composer/Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood in 2012. The artists’ work was presented side-by-side in two mid-September concerts in Wrocław, which included Penderecki's Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima and Polymorphia (for 48 strings); the latter inspired the Greenwood piece on the program, 48 Responses to Polymorphia. The works were then recorded for the Nonesuch album in Kraków, along with Greenwood's Popcorn Superhet Receiver, which was inspired by Penderecki’s Threnody.

Fatoumata Diawara makes her North American recording debut with today's release of the digital EP Kanou. Inspired by Wassoulou tradition, jazz, and blues, Diawara has created her own unique contemporary folk sound, giving a distinctly African spin to the concept of the female singer-songwriter. "Like her mentor [Oumou] Sangaré," says the Financial Times, "Diawara combines feminist social conscience with effortless melodic charm." The Kanou digital EP includes four tracks plus the video for the song "Bissa." Watch the video here.

Modern Music, a collaboration between pianists Brad Mehldau and Kevin Hays and composer/arranger Patrick Zimmerli is out this week. The album features pieces written by each of the three musicians as well as works by Reich, Coleman, and Glass, performed by the two pianists in arrangements by Zimmerli. The New York Times says the pianists bring "a high sheen to some choice material." The Financial Times gives the album a perfect five stars. MusicOMH calls it "another fascinating and technically remarkable addition to Mehldau’s body of work." The Guardian, reviewing Mehldau's live show with Chris Thile in London on Friday, says their "musicality and sympathy for each other's emerging ideas made it an unexpected tour de force."

Björk's Biophilia project is the Icelandic artist’s most interdisciplinary project to date, comprising a studio album, an app, a new website, custom-made musical instruments, live shows, and educational workshops. The album is due out on October 11, two weeks after its initially scheduled release date. Björk has written a statement explaining why the move was made and offering lots of great news about the album in the process! Read the full text of Björk's note here.

Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, which was released late last month on CD and digitally, is out today as a double-vinyl set, which includes two audiophile-quality, 140-gram vinyl discs plus a CD of the complete album. Ireland's Evening Herald is the latest publication to give the album a perfect five stars, saying: "The headline news is that Ry Cooder has made yet another of his trademark, cornerstone collections, dragging in the wide span of his American music influences." Canada's Winnipeg Free Press offers another five-star review and says: "This one is a classic." 

Björk continues to unveil Biophilia with the release of the brand new track “Moon” as a single and as a special feature of the Biophilia App, both available exclusively through iTunes. The app is a song and music sequencer inspired by similarities between cycles in music and cycles of the moon and tides. It also contains an animation, a scrolling music notation and an essay exploring Björk’s ideas about cycles in music and nature.

Nonesuch releases Steve Reich’s album WTC 9/11 on September 20, 2011. Commissioned for and recorded by Kronos Quartet, the title piece will be available for digital purchase on September 6. The album also includes Reich’s Mallet Quartet, performed by Sō Percussion, and Dance Patterns, featuring members of Steve Reich and Musicians, as well as a DVD with a live performance of Mallet Quartet by Sō Percussion. The full album may be pre-ordered now in the Nonesuch Store, where CD orders include a free download of the title piece starting September 6 and the complete album starting September 20.

After launching his solo career with the critically acclaimed Familial last year, Philip Selway returns with the Running Blind EP, which Nonesuch Records has now released digitally in the US and Canada. (It was released earlier this year in the UK and Europe via Bella Union.) The EP includes four songs plus a live session video of the title track, which you can watch here.

Ry Cooder's new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, is out now on CD and digitally, with the vinyl LP to follow on September 13. Cooder was the guest on Marketplace from American Public Media, where the album is now streaming in full. "From rock n’ roll to country to Dixieland jazz," says the show, "Cooder has mastered multiple genres on many albums. He does it again with his latest production ... His songs’ lyrics are a statement on our current economic times, but the music offers a tour of the country’s musical heritage." The New Yorker's Alec Wilkinson offers an extensive appreciation of Cooder. "I can’t write briefly about Ry Cooder," writes Wilkinson. "Admiration for his accomplishments, his singularity, and the longevity and diversity of his career intervene."

While all four physical version of Björk's forthcoming Biophilia album—on CD, vinyl, and two custom-made editions—may be pre-ordered in North America in the Nonesuch Store, today, August 11, is the last day to order the custom-made versions: the Biophilia Manual, which presents the music on two CDs in a 48-page hardbound, cloth-covered, thread-sewn book, and the Ultimate Art Edition, which includes the Manual along with 10 chrome-plated tuning forks, each representing the tone of a track on the album, all in a lacquered and silkscreened oak hinged-lid case.

Björk continues to roll out Biophilia with today's release of the "Virus" single and as a special feature on the Biophilia App, both available exclusively through iTunes. The app feature is part musical instrument, part sonic artwork, and part scientifically informed educational animation. SPIN calls "Virus" the album's "most intimate song yet," adding that "never has a song about human ailment sounded so seductive or beautiful." Björk discusses the project on the BBC World Service's The Strand. The two custom-made editions of the Biophilia album must be ordered by the end of the day this Thursday, August 11.

As announced last month, Modern Music, a collaboration between pianists Brad Mehldau and Kevin Hays and composer/arranger Patrick Zimmerli, will be released by Nonesuch on September 20. Now comes the album's cover, which features American Modernist painter Charles Sheeler's Classic Landscape. The album is available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with an instant download of the title track included at checkout. All About Jazz, reviewing Mehldau's latest solo album, Live in Marciac, raves: "It's a stunning document that somehow manages to satisfy the most basic melodic appetites while still confounding conventional understanding of human capability."