Kronos Quartet will give the premiere of "Aheym," a new piece written for the group by the National's Bryce Dessner during a free outdoor concert in Brooklyn's Prospect Park as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn! series, tonight at 7:30 PM. Dessner, in an interview with Pitchfork about this piece and the many other projects he's been working on of late, explains: "I've long been a fan of Kronos. I think a lot of people with my kind of background in contemporary music tend to be, because they're just such an important group." Also on tonight's program are works from Kronos's recent Nonesuch release, Floodplain, among others.

Wilco was joined by Feist to sing "You and I" at Monday night's concert at KeySpan Park in Brooklyn and on Tuesday night's performance for the Late Show with David Letterman. Stereogum posts video of the latter and reports: "Jeff [Tweedy] and Feist enjoy a laid back but engaged rapport onstage that matches the dulcet mesh of their voices, one of those rare collaborative dynamics that enhances the song's meaning as much as it raises the song's profile." Billboard says of Monday's concert: "The sight was American rock 'n' roll at its finest, with one of the genre's most powerful live acts at the helm." WFUV's Rita Houston says: "Great show in a great setting on a beautiful night in Coney Island. Magic was all there."

Wilco, fresh off last night's rocking sold-out set at Coney Island's Keyspan Park, is set to perform on Late Show with David Letterman tonight. The group will play "You and I," the Wilco (the album) duet with Leslie Feist, who will join the band for the show, as she did on Coney Island last night. Following last week's concert at Wolf Trap, outside DC, the Washington Post says the band offered "something for everyone ... all delivered in the tightest possible package." France's Télérama gives the album a perfect "four keys." The Daily Telegraph gives four stars to the new album, "a collection of unflaggingly high-quality, Beatles-y tunes ... with a yearning, uplifting summery spirit." The Scotland Herald says, "The whole album is beautifully produced and suffused with a kind of mature smarts ... It's great to have them back, America's best band."

Disfarmer, Bill Frisell's latest Nonesuch release, is due out a week from today you can now listen to the complete album online for NPR's Exclusive First Listen. NPR describes Frisell as "a guitar tactician with warmth and a composer of unclassifiable songs," and, on this album (inspired by the work of the late photographer Michael Disfarmer), "the quiet tactician of the electric guitar, who engineers loops and subtle distortions with phrasing you never knew you were expecting." NPR concludes: "It's a record alternately spare and full, languid and rollicking, pastoral and urbanely produced."

Voltaic, the audio-visual celebration of Björk's Volta tour, is out now on Nonesuch. The Wall Street Journal spoke with the Icelandic songstress who "makes music that melds edgy beats with dreamlike lyrics," about the project. Nashville Scene points to its visual aspect, describing her concerts as "absolutely spellbinding marriages of ethereal sound and astonishing vision," and explaining, "As always, the singer's voice is simply unparalleled in its celestial beauty, her primal stage presence is captivating, the beats are club-stomping, and the visual spectacle of the show is stunning." All About Jazz sees her  "here she's near the top of her game."

Shawn Colvin's Live album was released late last month on Nonesuch, and, says MusicOMH in its four-star review, "a live album is long overdue ... [T]his career-spanning selection of songs could easily be a wish list for any fan," he states, "but also serves as fine introduction to a singer-songwriter who is frequently mentioned in the same breath as James Taylor, Lucinda Williams and Joni Mitchell." Shawn is set to begin a run of solo dates this week, opening for Jackson Browne on Thursday. She spoke with Popdose, which calls her "one of the leading lights of 'Americana' music and perhaps the most important singer/songwriter—male or female—of the last 20 years."

Road Show, the latest work by Stephen Sondheim, is out now. The true-life tale has been through a number of permutations (including 2003's Bounce), and, says Playbill, "this recording sounds new, vibrant and refreshing." As always, Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations "perfectly translate the composer's music for orchestra" and producer Tommy Krasker "has made a fine job" of the recording. Talkin’ Broadway concurs, asserting: "The sound and spectacularly theatrical feel of the whole project is masterful." The review concludes: "The highly crafted work of Sondheim and the many intertwined lines of Weidman's are sharp, packed, concise and full of character specificity."

Christina Courtin's self-titled Nonesuch debut is out now, and, the Daily Express gives it a perfect five stars. She puts "her exceptional composition skills to 10 superb songs full of emotional complexity and subtle style shifts," says the paper. Teletext says that "what makes Courtin's debut stand out is the understated variety of her vocals. As precise as k.d. lang one moment, she's as untamed as Bat for Lashes the next." The Scripps Howard News Service calls Courtin "impossibly enchanting" and the new album "intoxicating."

Ry Cooder's three-week tour through Europe with Nick Lowe came to a close in Liverpool on Saturday with "an understated concert of music that captured an air of simplicity, honesty and restrained virtuosity," says the Liverpool Daily Post. "Ry, it’s great to see you back playing live where you belong." The Guardian gives four stars to last week's concert in Gateshead, asserting, "Cooder belongs to the elite group of guitarists, Eric Clapton and BB King among them, whose style can be identified by a single note." The Scotsman gives a perfect five stars to Thursday night's set in Edinburgh: "Cooder showed why he's considered the best slide player in the world." The Herald gives rates it five stars as well, saying the set "confirmed Cooder's status as the king of slide guitar."

Malian songstress Oumou Sangare’s Sunday performance at the Central Park SummerStage concert series in New York City is the subject of a review in Tuesday’s New York Times, in which critic Ben Ratliff writes that “the ancient lived with the new” in her set, which “started at a run and yanked you in.”

Wilco is back on the road in New England ... Amadou & Mariam begin their US tour opening for Coldplay ... Joshua Redman plays the Netherlands at the North Sea Jazz Festival, as do fellow labelmates Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, Allen Toussaint, Nicholas Payton, and Fred Hersch ... In Canada, the Punch Brothers perform in Canada at the Ottowa Blues Fest, and Oumou Sangare visits the Winnipeg Folk Fesitval in Manitoba.

All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen made an appearance on All Things Considered to discuss his favorite songs from the past six months. First on his list was The Low Anthem’s “Charlie Darwin,” from their recent Nonesuch release, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. “I get chills the moment I hear this guy’s voice,” said Boilen, referring to band member Ben Knox Miller.