Leave Your Sleep, Natalie Merchant's first studio recording in seven years, is out this week. Merchant kicks off a US tour with two shows in New York City and an appearance on ABC's Good Morning America. Her performance at the TED Conference is now online. The Sun gives five stars to the "breathtaking" new album. The Daily Telegraph gives four stars to the "gentle, lush, and magnificent" work. The Daily Express gives it four stars too, calling it "a real achievement." The Star-Ledger cites "the warm glow in her voice and the casual virtuosity of the wide-ranging music." Paste calls it "effortlessly elegant."

I Bring What I Love, the documentary film that follows Youssou N'Dour upon the Nonesuch release of his Grammy-winning album Egypt, is now available to own on DVD in the US via Oscilloscope Laboratories, loaded with over 70 minutes of special features. The film's soundtrack is out on Nonesuch. I Bring What I Love opened on 20 screens across France.

Caetano Veloso does DC ... Laurie Anderson plays four nights in Sweden ... the Assads go back to their roots ... The Black Keys headline Yuri's Night Bay Area ... Bill Frisell has four nights at Yoshi's Oakland ... Richard Goode plays Detroit ... Kronos is in residence at Duke ... The Low Anthem is in Toronto ... Brad Mehldau Trio too ... Pat Metheny plays three shows in Florida ... Punch Brothers make music in Montana ... Rokia Traoré begins US tour ... Wilco ends one ... and more ...

I Am Love, the new film from Luca Guadagnino, starring Tilda Swinton and featuring a score by John Adams, receives its theatrical release across the UK and Ireland today. The Irish Times says the film "has to be seen to be believed." I Am Love opens in the US in June and recently screened at Lincoln Center. The New York Times called it "a cinematic tour de force"; Time Out New York gives it five stars: "See it by any means necessary."

Rokia Traoré kicks off a four-week spring tour of the United States and the UK this weekend with a Saturday night set at the Stewart Theatre in Raleigh, North Carolina. She will spend the next week playing up and down the East Coast of the US, followed by a UK leg starting later this month. For the UK dates, Traoré will be joined by Mercury Prize-nominated British trio Sweet Billy Pilgrim.

Caetano Veloso’s new album, zii e zie, was released last week on Nonesuch Records. Now comes the start of a six-city US tour, which kicks off at New York City's Terminal 5 tonight. NPR affiliate WNYC has chosen tonight's show for its Gig Alert, offering a free download of the album track "Sem Cais." In a series of video interviews on nonesuch.com, Veloso describes the music on the album as transamba, or “samba transcending itself.”

Brazilian-born guitar duo Sérgio and Odair Assad are delving deeper into their roots in a series of live performances titled De Volta as Raizes (Back to our Roots). The concerts examine the brothers' ancestral roots in Lebanon, following the success of Sérgio's Latin Grammy-winning composition "Tahhiyya li ossoulina," off their most recent Nonesuch release, Jardim abandonado. They'll be joined by pianist/singer/composer Clarice Assad, percussionist Jamey Haddad, and Lebanese singer Christiane Karam in an exploration of the ties between the musics of the Middle East and Brazil.

With just a few days to go before the April 13 North American release of Tony Allen's World Circuit / Nonesuch debut album, Secret Agent, The Fader is offering a free download of the track "Ijo," the dub version from reggae star Dennis Bovell. The Fader predicts that the soon-to-be-released album is "gonna be a killer at the BBQs this summer."

Punch Brothers have announced their summer plans, with dozens of tour dates planned to take them across the United States through September. "Spring is here (!!) and summer's just around the corner," says the band. "And that means it's festival season. We're excited to be playing a bunch of great festivals and other shows including Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival, Mile High Music Festival, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Targhee Bluegrass Festival, and others."

Wilco has announced the launch of the Solid Sound Festival, a new festival the band will curate, August 13-15, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), featuring music, art, comedy, interactivity, and more. Wilco headlines the weekend, in the band's only East Coast performance of the summer. The festival also presents individual performances by all the Wilco members' side projects.

Here Lies Love, David Byrne's song-cycle collaboration with Fatboy Slim, is out now. Byrne discussed the project on the BBC World Service program The Strand, which calls it "wonderful"; it was also Album of the Day on BBC Radio 6 Music. Newsday gives the album an A-, calling it "an amazing piece of work" and "a thrilling success." The AP describes the album as "a magnificent sonic treat ... an epic, thrilling tale brimming with hair-raising harmonies, sumptuous beats and unexpected duets." It receives four stars from the Daily Mirror and Daily Express, which calls it "excitingly original."

The Nonesuch Records / PS Classics release of the new Broadway cast recording of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's A Little Night Music is out now. To mark the occasion, Sondheim and the cast signed copies of the album on release day at the Walter Kerr Theatre for 250-plus lucky fans. In the photo at left, Sondheim, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Angela Lansbury are seen hard at work. You'll find interviews with Zeta-Jones and Lansbury at nonesuch.com/media.