The Low Anthem is taking a few weeks off from its busy touring schedule to prepare its next album. The good news is, a number of sites—LaundroMatinee, Baebel Music, Duke Street Blog, and The Bandwidth Sessions—have posted video sessions of live performances by the band to allow fans to experience the live feel before the band heads out on the road again in July.

Stephen Sondheim and the cast of A Little Night Music, including Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angela Lansbury, and Alexander Hanson, signed copies of the new cast album in New York City last week for more than 250 lucky fans upon the album's release. The day's events have been documented in a new video, now at nonesuch.com/media. The composer presented Lansbury with the Signature Theatre's Stephen Sondheim Award in DC on Monday.

After a pre-sale brought fans of The Black Keys early access to tickets for the band's summer tour and their forthcoming album, Brothers, tickets are now available direct from the venues, and the album is available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store. Fans who got in on early tickets were able to download "Tighten Up," the first single off of Brothers. Now everyone can catch the video for the song and its undeniably charismatic star.

David Byrne's Here Lies Love—a collaboration with Fatboy Slim and nearly two dozen vocalists—is out now. Earlier this year, Byrne spoke with CNN about his craft while at the TED Conference, in a just-published video. The Daily Telegraph gives Here Lies Love four stars, calling it "inspired ... a headily atmospheric and inspired combination of humid, late-Seventies, early-Eighties Latin-tilted beats and lyrics you actually want to think about."

Leave Your Sleep, Natalie Merchant's first new album in seven years and her Nonesuch debut, is out now. For the album, Merchant adapts the works of poets into a musically kaleidoscopic, two-disc set of new songs. It was featured on the BBC World Service program The Strand. Now, Merchant offers further insight into the project in a new 10-minute documentary, The Making of "Leave Your Sleep," available at nonesuch.com/media, where you'll also find a video retrospective celebrating Merchant's career.

"Please Don't," the first of six videos from the David Byrne / Fatboy Slim album Here Lies Love, is now on view at nonesuch.com/media. The track features vocals by Santigold, one of the many artists to contribute vocals to the album, which explores the life of former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos and her rise to power. "Please Don't" documents Marcos's use of "handbag diplomacy" with world leaders to promote Philippine interests abroad.

The Low Anthem, having just completed its biggest-ever headline show last night in London, will soon be back in the States for two months of non-stop touring. Before the quartet left for Europe, it shot two on-the-go videos in New York City—the new song "Apothecary" in the grandeur of Grand Central and a haunting "This God Damn House" under twilight on Manhattan's Pier 66—for The Take-Away Shows series from La Blogotheque.

Natalie Merchant was in Ireland and Scotland last week to perform songs from her forthcoming Nonesuch debut, Leave Your Sleep. The Scotsman gives four stars to her Glasgow Celtic Connections performance, saying the set "gave full rein to the mercurial potency" of her voice. The Irish Times says that through her set at Whelan's in Dublin, she remained "the apple of everyone’s eye—and rightly so." Chronogram says the new album's "genius is in how Merchant pairs the poems with just the right accompaniment."

Ali and Toumani, the last album pairing guitar virtuoso Ali Farka Touré and kora master Toumani Diabaté, is out now. On NPR's All Things Considered yesterday, host Guy Raz calls the track "Sabu Yerkoy" "such a beautiful piece of music and so easy to listen to." Betto Arcos, host of Global Village, concurs, calling it "beautiful music." All About Jazz says it "certainly joins the ranks of recordings that are 'beyond criticism.'"

Realism, The Magnetic Fields' latest Nonesuch release, is available in stores across the globe today. Last night, the band joined fans and friends to celebrate the occasion at New York's Beauty Bar, with Stephin Merritt at the DJ booth. Now we celebrate with the launch of the fifth and final segment of the video series in which Merritt and Claudia Gonson discuss the new record, here answering: "Why Realism?"

Nonesuch Records releases Highway Rider, a double-disc of original work by pianist and composer Brad Mehldau, on March 16. The album is his second collaboration with producer Jon Brion and features performances by Mehldau’s trio—drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier—as well as drummer Matt Chamberlain, saxophonist Joshua Redman, and a chamber orchestra led by Dan Coleman. In a Nonesuch Store Exclusive, orders include an early demo recording in which Mehldau explains to Brion how he'd like the title track to unfold.

There's just one day left before the release of The Magnetic Fields' latest Nonesuch release, Realism, and that means two things: the fourth installment of the five-part video series about the new record (today revealing which room in the house offers the best acoustics for recording) and the CD release party, which the band hosts at New York's Beauty Bar tonight. All are welcome; admission is free. The Independent names Realism its CD of the Week.