Laurie Anderson recently participated in a lecture/performance and discussion at the Venice Biennale titled "A Short Talk on Places." She also sat down for a video interview on a wide range of subjects, including technology, music, the cultural ties that connect the world's cities, the art scene, the nature of dreams, the power of language, and her husband, Lou Reed. Watch the talk and the interview here. Laurie Anderson performs at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival in NYC next month.

The Black Keys will be among the headliners at the Virgin Mobile Freefest, taking place September 10 in Maryland. The line-up also includes TV on the Radio, Cee Lo Green, Patti Smith, and more. Free tickets will be given out this Friday. Despite heavy rain at the Ottawa Bluesfest last Friday, The Black Keys' audience was given "a night for the Bluesfest history books," says the Ottawa Citizen. The National Post, reviewing Thursday's show at Toronto's Molson Amphitheatre says: "The set is bigger. The lights are bigger. But it’s their sound and their showmanship, which used to rattle the walls of little clubs, that is now shaking stadiums."

John Adams is "this summer's hottest composer," says Q2, with recent stagings of two of his operas and, this week, a Lincoln Center Festival series in which the Cleveland Orchestra pairs his orchestral works with Bruckner symphonies. Watch Adams and Cleveland Music Director Franz Welser-Möst discuss the creative process in a video here. Tune in to Q2's The New Canon for a live chat about Adams with soprano Jessica Rivera (A Flowering Tree) and flautist Eric Lamb (Son of Chamber Symphony).

Christina Courtin recently performed at (Le) Poisson Rouge in NYC, with longtime and frequent collaborators Brooklyn Rider opening. The show was broadcast on Q2's Cued Up. "While taking cues from their classical training," says Q2, "these artists have broken down the conventional walls of a music conservatory and are comfortable playing anything from Philip Glass's string quartets to playing backup on Nashville-inspired tunes." Listen to Courtin's set here.

Stephen Sondheim's Road Show continues its run at the Menier Chocolate Factory, following last week's opening and the musical's European premiere. The production garners four stars from the Financial Times, which praises director John Doyle's "nimble, sassy staging" of Road Show, "a musical with a twinkle in its eye. Sondheim deploys the same vaudevillian flair he brought to Assassins." The Independent on Sunday calls Road Show "a polished new sparkler in the Sondheim treasury."

As Björk continues her Biophilia residency at the Manchester International Festival, with performances at Manchester's Campfield Market Hall this weekend and into next, the Icelandic artist has released details of the next Biophilia residency: six intimate shows at Harpa Concert Hall in her hometown of Reykjavik, from October 12 through 28. The first two performances are part of the Iceland Airwaves festival. In this week's New York Times Popcast, writer Jon Pareles recaps his trip to Manchester to see this "new multimedia extravaganza by Björk."

Legendary guitarist Manuel Galbán suffered a cardiac arrest and passed away in a hospital in Havana on July 7, 2011. From 1963 to 1972, Galbán performed with the legendary vocal group Los Zafiros, which blended Cuban music with R&B, calypso, bolero, and bossa and was one of the most successful Cuban groups of all time. He went on to work extensively on several Buena Vista Social Club solo projects with Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo, Cachaíto López, and Guajiro Mirabal, and joined Ry Cooder for the 2004 Grammy-winning duo album Mambo Sinuendo.

Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman, longtime friends and frequent collaborators, head out for a three-week duo tour of Europe, heading to Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Italy, and France. Following a solo tour for Mehldau and shows with James Farm for Redman, the two reunite for additional duo dates in the US and Europe this fall. Reviewing the duo's set at the Ottawa Jazz Festival, the Ottawa Citizen says they make "music of uncommon depth and simpatico." All About Jazz says they "delivered a performance that will be remembered by those lucky enough to be there, for a long time to come."

Stephen Sondheim's Road Show received its European premiere at London's Menier Chocolate Factory last night, earning four stars across the board from The Guardian, The Independent, and the Evening Standard. The Guardian says it is "lyrically witty, musically rich and has the sardonic satirical appeal of the Sondheim-Weidman Assassins ... full of vintage Sondheim." The Independent says it "has terrific drive, bite and buoyancy." The Evening Standard says it's "performed with sparkle." The Stage finds that its "rich, varied and tuneful score is as audacious and complex as any Sondheim has ever written."

James Farm and their self-titled debut album are featured on NPR's All Things Considered today. "New bands don't come along every day in jazz," says NPR's Tom Moon. "But listen to these unusual compositions, and to the lively exchanges that erupt inside of them. Even though these players can only make a partial commitment of time to James Farm, they're fully committed musically." The Los Angeles Times says: "While the term 'supergroup' may be a loaded concept, it's hard not to consider James Farm one ... The new ground covered by [Joshua] Redman and cohorts casts a spell of its own."

As Björk's Biophilia residency at the Manchester International Festival continues, so too does the critical acclaim for her. The Guardian says as a pop innovator, "Björk is peerless" and "remains an icon: tiny but titanic, thanks to the size of her voice and the scope of her imagination." The Daily Telegraph gives the performances four stars, citing the music's "transcendent beauty." The Financial Times says "Biophilia’s songs are some of the best Björk has written for a long time." Independent on Sunday calls it "brilliantly original and ambitious." The Quietus calls her "an international treasure." Björk is the guest editor of the entire 200th issue of Dazed & Confused, out Thursday.