An unlikely source for the great musician’s most personal song, in a cast album for a musical that had 999 performances in the Millennium Dome.

The last studio album from the great vocalist shows how melody emerges from the great oceanic drone, bringing us within a deep sound world.

Nusrat’s final collaboration with Michael Brooks opens fascinating new directions in sound.

A brilliant work that coalesces personal and global tragedies into a searing song cycle, this 1994 record stands among Laurie’s best.

Album of the Week, September 12, 2026 Following Weaving My Ancestors’ Voices, Sheila Chandra continued her exploration of voice and drone, of the interconnections between breath and thought, of voice and listener. She noted in the original liner notes to The Zen Kiss, “My last album … illustrates crossing between different musics within a single vocal line. The Zen Kiss…

Drone reconstruction of the World Trade Center, NYC, 2026. Courtesy Getty Images Twenty-five years ago was a long time, long enough for me to have written down my thoughts about the day several times before; long ago enough for the act of remembering to yield to the act of editing, redacting, and constructing a narrative thread of the day. In September 2001 I was in the second year of business school.

F.G. Rathbun, courtesy Rathbun-Rathbone-Rathburn Family Historian A brief one today, about a peripheral feature in early Virginia Glee Club history. Frederick G. Rathbun (1862–1903) conducted the Glee Club for a single season, but lived an unusually varied and rich life in music outside of his experience with the Glee Club. Rathbun was born in South Lee, Massachusetts, which is about a fifteen-minute drive from Tanglewood, in 1862, and attended New England Conservatory, making him one of only a few Glee Club conductors with conservatory training (the others: Frank Albinder and James S.

The Kenyan musician’s sole Real World album is a mesmerizing window onto music both specific to the Luo tradition, and universal.

Album of the Week, August 29, 2026 This week is another round of traditional qawwali music from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and it has a complicated release history. Originally there were two records, released separately in 1986 for WOMAD Records following Nusrat’s triumphal 1985 performance, Love Songs and Devotional Songs. These were rereleased on Real World following the 1992 liquidation of WOMAD as a standalone entity due to mounting debts.

Voice, drone and the universality of musical expression.

The artist’s most emotionally direct album digs in the dirt to yield a richly organic collaboration with some of his most enduring songs.

A mesmerizing collection of traditional and modern song from the great qawwali master.

E. Azalia Hackley Collection, Detroit Public Library.Roland Hayes pictured with a diamond tie pin presented by King George V, of England on April 23, 1921. I sang a composition arranged by Roland Hayes this Sunday at church. Our church’s regular choir doesn’t do the summer services, so I sometimes sign up to sing a solo one week. This year I learned that we would be preaching from Luke 2, which tells stories of Jesus as a boy, and went looking for solos that drew from those stories.

An album mixing traditional music from Uganda and modern reflections, by turns joyous and sober, from a musician in exile.

A legendary collaboration between the great singer and ambient artist Michael Brook that gave traditional qawwali music a new beat.

His second major label album finds the Senegalese superstar making uncompromising mbalax dance music that moves feet globally.

Way back in 2003 and 2004, I wrote about a trip that we took with our friends Charlie and Carie to see the Museum of Glass and pointed to the pictures we took there. That trip started a chain of events that saw me enter an NPR phoneblogging competition and one of my photos published in The Guardian. Most of that is offline now, but with a little careful archaeology I was able to pull some of the pieces back together and also get some updated photos from our trip yesterday.

In which a performance artist leans into the musical side of her art and finds emotional resonance.

For me, the American Bicentennial celebrations in 1776 came and went without leaving much of an impact. I was not yet four years old, so am unsure of what I do remember, though certain impressions (crowds, heat, loud sounds) persist. I do remember the atmosphere of the year: lots of red, white, and blue kitsch. A resurgence in Holly Hobbyized “Colonial” fashion.

Kate reaches a deeper emotional resonance on the sequel to Hounds of Love, with help from an unlikely cast of collaborators.

A musical journey around the world with the collaborators and inspirations for the sounds of Peter Gabriel’s groundbreaking soundtrack.

The Senegalese superstar’s major label debut blends a deep groove with modern technology and that incredible voice into a compelling, if uneven, listen.

Nusrat’s first Western album is an ideal representation of the sacred and secular art of qawwali singing.

On 25 years of writing publicly on the Internet.

A landmark collaboration with a seemingly inexhaustible parade of master musicians creates one of the strongest offerings in Gabriel’s catalog.

A soundtrack of a concert film of a performance art show, with wild technological magic under its skin.

Peter’s singles provide a good excuse to linger in the world of “So” a little longer.

The bestselling 1986 album seamlessly melds art and pop and marks Peter’s transition to a top tier star.

An hour of sunny, dreamy happy music for late spring/summerish afternoons.

Exfiltration Radio returns with an hour of Thelonious Monk.

On taking control of an artistic career and creating an unparalleled work of genius.

Or, what to do with that quinquina in your liquor cabinet.

A recently released archival recording documenting the moment when the great qawwali burst onto the world stage.

Peter Gabriel’s first soundtrack album leans heavily on his past while pointing to the future.

End of an era.

Anderson’s second studio album expands her sonic palette, producing a hypnotic record full of the rich and the strange.

Gabriel gives a definitive send-off to the sound and songs of his first four albums in his first live record.

Embracing both musical sounds from around the globe and modern technology produces a pioneering album that is still compelling and strange today.

The conceptual artist’s first major label album is an unliikely, and highly listenable, artifact from an ambiguous future.

A dip into the wild world of performance art and avant-garde writing from the dawn of the New Wave.

In this 1980 recording, a massive drum sound and sharpened songwriting lead to the discovery of a new voice.

The second PG album finds him experimenting, with sometimes thrilling and sometimes uneven results.

A former prog-rock frontman steps out of the machinery and begins the long process of reinventing himself.

An electrifying, bluesy late work from the great bassist takes us on a sort of survey of the many forms of the blues.

The last great composition from Mingus sums up all his contradictions into a single masterpiece.

From Mingus’s golden year, a spectacular live set with something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.

An illuminating revisitation of some of the bassist’s greatest compositions.

The composer’s masterpiece is a cry of despair and a dance of freedom (or maybe vice versa).

Legendarily tense and extraordinarily beautiful, this rare Mingus trio album repays close listening.