Nonesuch Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Presenting composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire's Nonesuch Records debut album, Owl Song. The album, comprised of music by a trio formed of Akinmusire himself with two musicians he's has long admired - guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Herlin Riley - is the first of three records Akinmusire is set to release on Nonesuch over the next year. Each will spotlight a distinct element of his musical world and involve different instrumentation and production approaches. Described by the artist as a response to a modern world in which he has at times "felt assaulted by information", Owl Song is a space of progressive-acoustic-electronic nighttime calm, an open question of nocturnality.

Review: Delta Kream is the 10th studio album from now well established Ohio rock outfit The Black Keys. It is one that distinctly looks back to their pre-formation roots as the group play eleven Mississippi hill country blues standards that they have loved since they were teenagers. The songs were recorded at Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville with musicians Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton - who played with bands who were involve with many of the original songs - also included in the sessions. Songs by R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, among others, are included to make this a lovely listen.

Review: It's been a solid five years since the epic sounds of America's best plugged-in rock duo last electrified our ears. And be it a reference to the Rolling Stones or even Scorsese, the album turns it up from the start with "Shine A Little Light". Big time rhodes and bluesy folk mentalities are then wrapped up in a low-slung ballad that is "Walk Across The Water". Some fans may still be yearning for the raw energy that catapulted the duo into the limelight with Magic Potion, however high voltage sounds can still be found on tracks like "Under The Gun" and "Lo/Hi" - with gospel elements in this case edging to the fore. Overall there's a slight dance element protruding from this LP in comparison to previous records, begging the question: Can you dig it!

Review: During The Black Keys surprise revival of recent years, much of their music has been produced by Dangermouse. While he played no role on the duo's new album, Ohio Players - their 12th in total - his influence remains in the inventiveness of the production. The pair's new-found love of collaboration remains too, with Beck credited as co-writer on roughly half of the album's tracks. His influence is obvious in the funkiness and fuzz-fuelled psychedelia of 'This Is Nowhere' and 'Don't Let Me Go', as well as the quirky, horn-sporting cheeriness of 'Beautiful People (Stay High)' and the low-slung, effortlessly funky indie-rap hedonism of 'Paper Crown' (where he appears on vocals alongside Juicy J. The band's wholehearted love of hip-hop is also explored on the excellent Lil Noid collaboration 'Candy & Her Friends'.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


It's been a solid five years since the epic sounds of America's best plugged-in rock duo last electrified our ears. And be it a reference to the Rolling Stones or even Scorsese, the album turns it up from the start with "Shine A Little Light". Big time rhodes and bluesy folk mentalities are then wrapped up in a low-slung ballad that is "Walk Across The Water". Some fans may still be yearning for the raw energy that catapulted the duo into the limelight with Magic Potion, however high voltage sounds can still be found on tracks like "Under The Gun" and "Lo/Hi" - with gospel elements in this case edging to the fore. Overall there's a slight dance element protruding from this LP in comparison to previous records, begging the question: Can you dig it!

Review: It's only been two years - well, actually, not even that - since we last had an album from The Black Keys. No matter which clock you're looking at, though, fresh work from the Ohio duo can never get here soon enough, and from where we're sitting it sounds like Ohio Players is up there with the greatest records the band have given us. It also proves they're capable of constant reinvention, without risking that clear blues-garage identity. With guest appearance from rapper Lil Noid, legendary guitarist Beck, and Brit-indie icon Noel Gallagher, there's no disguising myriad influencing factors are at play. Yet, across the 14 pieces here, there's something wonderfully, unmistakably Black Keys happening. A thing to savour and submit to in equal measure, then.

Review: 'American Utopia' is the first solo record in 14 years from iconic polymath David Byrne. The album comes as part of a larger project entitled 'Reasons To Be Cheerful' - a series of works that strives to antidote pervasive social and political anxieties. In keeping with this, 'American Utopia' questions realities of contemporary culture with playful writing that shifts perspectives and favours optimism over despairing pessimism. Being the product of working with 25 collaborators, 'American Utopia' feels like something of a sonic patchwork, but doesn't ever feel sprawling, neatly tied together by Byrne's inimitable sense of melody and harmony. 'American Utopia' doesn't offer any transcendental conclusions on how to save the world, but advocates positive and unusual ways of looking at the world around us, and with a career underpinned by a singular and indescribable quirkiness, Byrne is the ideal candidate the job.

Review: Talk about epitomising the concept album concept. Released on 5th April 2010, Here Lies Love sees the somewhat unlikely partnership of Talking Heads legend David Byrne and UK big beat DJ and producer Fatboy Slim focus their efforts on retelling the tale of Imelda Marcos, former-First Lady of the Philippines, as told with no less than 22 guest vocalists. These include Cyndi Lauper, Tori Amos, Martha Wainwright, Natalie Merchant, Sia, Santigold, St Vincent, Florence Welch, and Charmaine Clamor. An impressive list to say the least, just two male voices appear - Steve Earle and Byrne himself - with the record primarily comprising what the latter once described as "clubby dance music". Certainly at the softer, more disco-derived end of that spectrum, the result of all these ingredients is a potent brew of song and story, exploring ideas around power dynamics and drivers, and one of few releases this century worthy of a full stage adaptation, which followed in 2013.

Review: It was a precipitous climb from obscurity to indie rock royalty for Fleet Foxes, and some might view their most recent five year absence as wise given the pressure they felt following up the harmony-laden and heartwarming strains of their debut. Yet longterm fans of Robin Pecknold's bunch of bookish aesthetes will rejoice as 'Crack Up' is every bit as deliriously wrought with heavenly melody, as rich in autumnal melancholy and as overloaded with symbolism and cerebral reference points as anything they might have hoped for - now as ever, Fleet Foxes set the standards for the sound of the more overgrown quarters of bohemia.

Review: LA-based composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sam Gendel's COOKUP is a new album of old material, kind of. It finds him laying down all new interpretations of r&b and soul hits that were first released between 1992 and 2004. It comes on Nonesuch Records and is another showcase of just why Gendel is at the heart of his native scene in Los Angeles. Across 12 glorious tunes his friends and collaborators Gabe Noel and Philippe Melanson help him rework material by greats like Beyonce, Genuwine, Erykah Badu, Soul II Soul and Boyz II Men. A fine collection.

Review: The 2002 film The Hours starred hefty Hollywood talents Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore, and the original score was composed by no lesser titan of his industry than Philip Glass. It is a masterful work from the legendary minimal composer and is here presented across four sides of vinyl by the Nonesuch label. It has plenty of thick, lush strings and lots of tonal suspension with cool piano parts, plenty of heavily pregnant silences and cascading scales that all add plenty to the film itself as well as being a great standalone listen.

Review: Kronos Quartet has now been active for 50 years and to mark the anniversary Nonesuch is putting out tone of their most acclaimed albums on vinyl for the first time. It comes as the Quartet is on a big 50th anniversary tour and almost 30 years after the original Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass album was first released in 1995. David Harrington and John Sherba play violin, Hank Dutt is on viola and Joan Jeanrenaud plays cello as they perform Glass pieces from the early 80s onwards including five which were actually written specifically for this group. They make for some of the best music the great composer has ever written, if you ask us.

Review: Cecile McLorin Salvant's new album Melusine mixes up his own new originals - five of them - with nine of his own interpretations of songs that go as far back as the 12th Century. Most of them are sung in French with Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyo following on from last year's label debut Ghost Song which got not only critical praise but two Grammy nominations. This spirited, richly cultural tracks take you on a worldly journey through many forms of jazz that invigorate mind, body and soul.

Review: Given his length of service and the sheer depth of his catalogue, we'll forgive Pat Metheny for taking his time over this album. It arrives some six years after its predecessor, with Metheny using that time to work with a stripped-back band of traditional jazz musicians (drummer, pianist, bassist) and more striking a symphony orchestra. The results are impressive, with Metheny's distinctively bright and breezy guitar solos rising above backing tracks that mix his usual fusion style with a more old-fashioned take on jazz. Highlights are plentiful, with the epic and emotive "America Undefined" - a lengthy, building workout that recalls some of his most stunning works - and "You Are", which boasts some of his now-standard scat vocals, standing out.

Review: Wilco's Iconic Yankee Hotel Foxtrot gets a special 20th anniversary reissue here and has given it a full remastering treatment just for the occasion. Back in 20022, this was seen as one of the year's best incidents albums with high praise from NME, Rolling Stone, Uncut and many more. It was the band's first album on Nonesuch Records after they split from Reprise and was also the first featuring the line-up of drummer Glenn Kotche and multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach joining founding members Jeff Tweedy and John Stirratt. Though the recording process was brought, the resulting album has stood the test of time.

Review: Wilco's first studio album in three years, "Sky Blue Sky" has been perhaps the most ardently awaited release of 2007. Eager fans had taken to shouting out pleas for information to bandleader Jeff Tweedy during his recent solo acoustic tour, and the web chatter has been virtually deafening. On "Sky Blue Sky" Tweedy's lyrics deal forthrightly with romantic separation and reconciliation, their bittersweet quality giving way, as the album progresses, to a more uplifting, redemptive mood. Tweedy quite literally banishes the darkness on the penultimate track, the inspiring, gospel-tinged "What Light".