New Releases
-
October 23, 2020On Sam Amidon's self-titled album, which he produced and considers the fullest realization to date of his artistic vision, he performs radical reworkings of mostly traditional folk songs with his frequent band, multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Chris Vatalaro, along with saxophonist and label mate Sam Gendel, guitarist Bert Cools, bassist Ruth Goller, and Amidon’s wife, Beth Orton, who adds vocals on three songs. Pre-order to download "Maggie" now and get an autographed print.
-
On the Fatal Flower Garden EP (A Tribute to Harry Smith), Sam Amidon performs four songs from Anthology of American Folk Music, Smith’s beloved and influential 1920s and ’30s folk music recordings. Amidon and frequent collaborator Shahzad Ismaily play all the instruments; Leo Abrahams engineered, produced, and mixed. "Harry Smith believed in the secret connections and mysteries that existed in culture," says Amidon, "whether it was the feeling of Thelonious Monk’s rhythmic phrasing; the patterns in string games and Ukrainian egg painting designs; the wild fiddle tunes; or the epic folk ballads."
-
The original cast recording for Dave Malloy's musical Octet features a score for an a cappella chamber choir and an original libretto inspired by internet comment boards, scientific debates, religious texts, and Sufi poetry. Octet, which premiered at the Signature Theatre in 2019, explores addiction and nihilism within the messy context of twenty-first century technology. "The most original and topical musical of the year," says the New York Times; "the sublime a cappella chamber opera is a portrait in song of perhaps the greatest David and Goliath struggle of our time."
-
Mountain Man—the trio of Amelia Meath, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, and Molly Sarlé—follows up its 2018 Nonesuch debut album, Magic Ship, and its Sings John Denver EP with the second in its Sings cover series: the 1942 Irving Berlin holiday classic, "White Christmas." "We wanted to record a song that could be played in people's homes throughout the holidays, like a gentle push of light," says the band. "We thought 'White Christmas' might do the trick!"
-
On Children and Art, his first new album since 2002, Mandy Patinkin performs songs by Randy Newman, Laurie Anderson, Lyle Lovett, Taylor Mac, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Waits, Rufus Wainwright, Taylor Mac, Teitur, and Patinkin himself. The album was recorded in New York with pianist/producer Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman) and features several songs previewed over the previous two years in the digital Diary series.
-
The cast album for the critically acclaimed Broadway production of David Byrne’s American Utopia includes songs from his 2018 album, American Utopia, along with music from Talking Heads and Byrne’s solo career. Byrne shares the spotlight with a diverse ensemble of eleven musical artists from around the globe for an event that delivers "an experience unlike anything else," says Billboard. "Dazzling, rapturous and jubilant," exclaims the New York Times. "Astonishing," raves Hollywood Reporter. "A knockout celebration of music, dance and song. Pure bliss." Rolling Stone calls it "a tonic for our tumultuous times."
-
Vagabon (aka Lætitia Tamko)'s self-titled Nonesuch debut album was written and produced entirely by Tamko. In this follow up to her breakout debut, Infinite Worlds, guitar-driven melodies are largely absent, and in their place are songs buoyed by hybridized analog and digital arrangements. Grounded by Tamko's expressive voice and knack for unique melodies, the album flits between genres, never lingering too long on one particular sensibility.
-
¡Spangled!—a collaboration between Guatemalan-born singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno and American musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer Van Dyke Parks—celebrates the migration of song across the Americas. The ten-song set spans more than a century, including a bolero from Panama, a bossa nova from Brazil, a song by Moreno, Trinidadian songwriter David Rudder's "The Immigrants," and an elegiac ballad from the Southwest US: Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, and Jim Dickinson’s “Across the Borderline,” performed with Cooder and Jackson Browne.
-
Joshua Redman and Brooklyn Rider perform on Sun on Sand—eight compositions from a suite by composer Patrick Zimmerli—along with bassist Scott Colley and drummer Satoshi Takeishi. Each song in the suite, which premiered at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2014, represents a different expression of light.