Rhiannon Giddens reunites with her former Carolina Chocolate Drops bandmate Justin Robinson on What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow. Produced by Giddens and Joseph "joebass" DeJarnette, the album features Giddens on banjo and Robinson on fiddle, playing eighteen of their favorite North Carolina tunes. Many were learned from their late mentor, legendary North Carolina Piedmont musician Joe Thompson; one is from another musical hero, the late Etta Baker. Giddens and Robinson recorded outdoors at Thompson’s and Baker’s North Carolina homes, as well as the former plantation Mill Prong House, accompanied by the sounds of nature.

Lady on the Bike—the debut album from cinematic electro-pop duo Ringdown, featuring Danni Lee Parpan and Pulitzer and Grammy winner Caroline Shaw—celebrates the feeling of possibility in myriad forms: the possibility of love; the possibility of creating connection and community in a world trying to pull those things apart; the possibility of making music in new ways. The songs were collaboratively written and recorded by the duo. New Body Electric members Leah Vautar and Aaron K Peterson perform on and help produce several songs; Sō Percussion is featured on a new version of Ringdown’s previously released single “Ghost.”

About Ghosts features eight new compositions by guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson, performed with her sextet Amaryllis, the improvisatory band featured on her critically praised albums Amaryllis, Belladonna, and Cloudward: Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Jacob Garchik (trombone), and Adam O’Farrill (trumpet). Saxophonists Immanuel Wilkins and Brian Settles join the ensemble on five tunes, and Halvorson adds Pocket Piano synthesizer overdubs on a number of tracks. The album was produced and mixed by Deerhoof's John Dieterich.

David Longstreth’s Song of the Earth, a song cycle for orchestra and voices, is performed by Longstreth with his band Dirty Projectors—Felicia Douglass, Maia Friedman, Olga Bell—and the Berlin-based chamber orchestra s t a r g a z e, the album also features Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie), Steve Lacy, Patrick Shiroishi, Anastasia Coope, Tim Bernardes, Ayoni, Portraits of Tracy, and the author David Wallace-Wells.

The 27-disc box set Steve Reich Collected Works features music recorded during Steve Reich's 40 years on the label—six decades of his compositions, including first recordings of his two latest works, Jacob’s Ladder and Traveler’s Prayer—plus two extensive booklets with new essays by Robert Hurwitz, Michael Tilson Thomas, Russell Hartenberger, Judith Sherman, and Nico Muhly, and a comprehensive listener’s guide by Timo Andres. Nonesuch made its first record with Steve Reich in 1985; he was signed exclusively to the label that year. Collected Works includes 24 discs of Nonesuch recordings and three from other labels.