New Releases
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June 25, 2021Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part is an album of songs written and performed by Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion. With Shaw on vocals and Sō filling out this new band, they developed songs in the studio, with lyrics inspired by their own wide-ranging interests: James Joyce, the Sacred Harp hymnal, a poem by Anne Carson, the Bible’s Book of Ruth, the American roots tune “I’ll Fly Away,” the pop music of ABBA, and more. Pre-order to download “To the Sky” now and get a custom climbing pole bean seed packet hand-printed and signed by Shaw.
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On his Nonesuch Records debut album, Over That Road I’m Bound, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joachim Cooder uses the plain-spoken songs of country-music progenitor and banjo player Uncle Dave Macon as a jumping off point, tinkering with the lyrics and reworking melodies for his chosen instrument: an electric mbira. Cooder culled songs from Macon’s vast catalog and recorded them with his band and special guests: Ry Cooder, Rayna Gellert, Juliette Commagere, Sam Gendel, Glenn Patscha, Amir Yaghmai, Dan Gellert, and Vieux Farka Touré. "Warm, uplifting, and quietly spectacular," says Uncut. "A buoyant and joyful long-player," says Mojo.
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On DRM, Sam Gendel performs solo musical experiments with vintage instruments—a forty-year-old Electro Harmonix DRM32 drum machine, antique synthesizers, a sixty-year-old nylon-string guitar—accompanied by his voice. The album includes one cover song: Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” which Gendel interprets as an instrumental, playing the melody on an old German analogue synthesizer.
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Mountain Man performs the Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts" as part of its Mountain Man Sings series of cover singles. "'Simple Gifts' is one of those incredible songs that transforms you while you sing it," says the trio. "It's like an incantation, and it was a joy to record."
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Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered, with a libretto by poet/writer Nathaniel Bellows, is a celebration of, and an elegy for, the natural world—animals, plants, insects, the planet itself—an appeal for greater awareness, urgency, and action. Originally commissioned by Trinity Church Wall Street, this recording features the English vocal ensemble Gallicantus conducted by Gabriel Crouch.
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This new mix of Vagabon's song "Home Soon," from her self-titled Nonesuch debut album, is featured in the 2020 film Antebellum starring Janelle Monáe.
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While sheltering at home with his family during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brad Mehldau wrote twelve new songs about what he was experiencing; he was able to record them safely in a studio, together with tunes by Neil Young, Billy Joel, and Jerome Kern that mean a great deal to him, for this album, Suite: April 2020. Includes download of sheet music PDF for the piece “remembering before all this.”
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Rostam, in celebration of the three-year anniversary of his Nonesuch debut, Half-Light, released this acoustic version of the album's title track. The song, which was originally released as part of a compilation album benefitting Fair Fight, features Rostam solo and multi-tracked on guitar, drums, piano, hammond organ, and bass.
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On The Call Within, pianist/composer Tigran Hamasyan performs ten original compositions, with Evan Marien on electric bass and Arthur Hnatek on drums. Produced by Hamasyan, the album is a journey into his dreamlike inner world, taking inspiration from his interest in maps from different eras, poetry, Armenian folk stories, astrology, geometry, ancient Armenian design, rock carvings, and cinematography, and creating what Record Collector calls "a kaleidoscopic tapestry of sound." Jazzwise exclaims: "An exceptional recording for exceptional times."