The Low Anthem's Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, finds the trio going "beyond what we've come to expect out of most young bands," says JamBase in a profile of the group. The album's opening track, "Charlie Darwin," is "a delightfully haunting number that relishes in its own simplicity, reminding us that there are still good songs being made." The band's performance of the tune is such that it "will make your scalp tingle."

Stephen Sondheim continues his series of on-stage conversations about his life and career, following last year's inaugural event with Frank Rich in San Francisco, which the San Francisco Chronicle called "a dazzling evening." Sondheim spoke with that paper and the Houston Chronicle in advance of coming events in those areas, and says humbly: "You keep writing what you like and you hope other people will like it."

Earlier this year, "Charlie Darwin," the opening track to The Low Anthem's Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, was named one of the best songs of the year by NPR. Now, the band's moving music and lyrics have been set to beautiful images in a new video by Glenn Taunton and Simon Taffe, which premieres today on Stereogum. "The solemn, solitary pathos in Glenn Taunton's animated video for Low Anthem's 'Charlie Darwin' adds another layer of melancholia to the track," says Stereogum, "offering an affecting visual counterpart to Ben Knox Miller's fragile falsetto."

Foundation Passerelle, the organization founded by Rokia Traoré to help her fellow Malians prepare for careers in music, has been awarded the first-ever Roskilde Festival World Music Award. Rokia will accept the 30,000 euro award, on the foundation's behalf, from the Lord Mayor of Copenhagen at the Womex world music conference on November 1. She had already been scheduled to attend this year's Womex to speak about the foundation.

The music of Bill Frisell's latest release, Disfarmer, was inspired by the work of 20th-century Arkansas photographer Mike Disfarmer. Jazz Times finds the imagery and music to be well matched, the songs "a collective act of the imagination that comes close to deciphering Disfarmer’s mystery." The albums is "one of Frisell’s most accessible," says the magazine, its music both "old and new, rich in common history, and beyond genre."

When John Adams's City Noir received its world premiere early this month in the gala Opening Night concert of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under its new music director Gustavo Dudamel, it was met with rave reviews and an adulatory audience response. The performance, which was paired with Mahler's First Symphony, airs tonight on PBS's Great Performances. On his new blog, Adams praises Dudamel as "the genuine article."

Joshua Redman and his trio begin a five-night residency at New York's Jazz Standard tonight. The New York Times says to expect "plenty of dynamism in the exchange" from the trio; the Village Voice says that "Redman's authoritative these days, and he's taught his team how to keep lots of balls in the air at once." The Guardian gives four stars to the saxophonist's recent concert with Brad Mehldau in London and the Mehldau Trio's own show there, citing the pianist's "remarkable contrapuntal improvising style and incisive musical intelligence."

The Low Anthem played its first-ever West Coast show this past weekend at Chop Suey in Seattle, meeting up with Blind Pilot on Monday to start a three-week tour together. While in Seattle, the trio stopped by KEXP to perform a four-song session; tune in tonight at 9 PM PST to hear it. Leading to this Friday's show in LA, Jeff Prystowsky spoke with LAist, which describes the new album as "chocked full of intelligent lyrics inspired by America's past and present laid gently on top of harmonies that make your heart ache."

I Am Love, the film to which John Adams has contributed his first-ever score, has been nominated for a Hollywood World Award for best international film; the Los Angeles Times says the score "adds a staggering emotional punch" to the film. The Times review of Sunday's LA Master Chorale performance of Klinghoffer Choruses calls Adams "an American icon" and the opera's music as "some of the most haunting Adams has written." The composer delivers the Tanner Lectures on Human Values next week at Yale.

Natalie Merchant will give her first UK performance in over seven years at Conway Hall in London November 16, showcasing material from her forthcoming Nonesuch debut. The previous Friday, Natalie will join the London Jazz Festival Orchestra at the Barbican for the London Jazz Festival's Opening Night; a week later, she'll perform at the Crossing Border festival in The Hague. This Friday, UK fans can catch Natalie on a special episode of BBC Two's Newsnight.

Alarm Will Sound celebrated the recent release of its Nonesuch debut, a/rhythmia, with an album release and listening party at New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge last night. Alan Pierson, the group's artistic director, and Gavin Chuck, its managing director, spoke with BBC's The Strand about the new album, which, says the BBC, "even includes a few tracks that it was thought impossible for human beings to play."

Wilco closes out the US leg of its fall tour tonight in the second of two consecutive shows in its hometown, at the University of Illinois Chicago Pavilion, with fellow locals Tortoise opening. The Chicago Sun-Times review of Sunday's set calls them "visionaries"; the Chicago Tribune says Wilco has "evolved into something of a mini-orchestra." The National Post says Wilco's shows in Toronto last week "solidified its position as one of the greatest that ever DID get signed."