Timo Andres is the subject of the latest episode of Q2 Music's Q2 Spaces, which looks inside the homes and studios of composers and performers in the new-music world. Andres welcomes viewers into his Brooklyn home for a conversation about Beethoven, Ingram Marhsall, Edward Gorey, and much more. Watch it here. He gives the world premiere of a new piece, Work Songs, in New York City this Wednesday as part of the Ecstatic Music Festival. Andres wrote the piece especially for fellow composers and multi-instrumentalists Gabriel Kahane, Ted Hearne, Becca Stevens, and Nathan Koci, who will perform it in the concert. The concert will be hosted by WNYC’s John Schaefer and webcast live on Q2 Music.

Rokia Traoré, as part of her US tour last fall to mark the release of her new album, Beautiful Africa, stopped by the studios of KCRW in Santa Monica to perform on Morning Becomes Eclectic and talk with the show's guest host, Chris Douridas, about the new album and tour. KCRW has posted video of the complete interview and performance, featuring songs from the new album, which you can watch here. NPR calls her "one of Mali's most revered voices."

Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, the debut album from the electric duo of Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana, due February 25 on Nonesuch Records, and Kin (←→), the debut album from the Pat Metheny Unity Group, due February 4, are featured on the latest episode of BBC Radio 2's Jamie Cullum show. The episode looks ahead to the music of 2014 and showcases "some of the most exciting tracks coming out in the next few months in the world of jazz," including "Hungry Ghost" from the Mehliana album and "Kqu" from Kin (←→).

CBC Music has published its list of the Top Albums of the Year, and featured among them are four albums released on Nonesuch Records in 2013: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell's Old Yellow Moon (Best Singer-Songwriter Album), Jeremy Denk's recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations (Best Classical Album), and Rokia Traoré's Beautiful Africa and Bombino's Nomad (Top 5 World Music Albums).

Joel and Ethan Coen, the directors and writers of Inside Llewyn Davis, were on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, discussing the 1960s folk scene depicted in the film, the cult following of their earlier film The Big Lebowski, the travails of working with cats, and more. Inside Llewyn Davis, already a favorite on many a year-end-best list, has now been named the Best Picture of 2013 by the Village Voice and the Toronto Film Critics Association, both of which have named Oscar Isaac (Llewyn Davis) the year's Best Actor. 

NPR Music has published the list of its 100 Favorite Songs of 2013, and featured among them are songs from three Nonesuch Records releases: Rokia Traoré's "Mélancolie," from her new album, Beautiful Africa; Sam Amidon's "My Old Friend," from Bright Sunny South; and Timo Andres's Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno, from Home Stretch. "What do you have to do, as a song, to win our hearts," asks NPR. "You have to sink in. You have to stop someone dead in her tracks. You need to cause that man to act a fool." These are songs that "are stamped with memories or reliably turn the temperature up or put a smile on our face every single time."

Jeremy Denk was featured on NPR's All Things Considered this weekend. He spoke with host Arun Rath about J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations and his new recording of it. "The piece is kind of about invention and imagination," says Denk. "In another way, it's like the biggest jazz riff ever written. It's endlessly funny in some ways and endlessly moving in other ways."

Pianist Jeremy Denk was a guest on WNYC's The Leonard Lopate Show yesterday. He talks about his latest Nonesuch release, a recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, and performs from the piece. "I think of Bach as this really generous spirit," Denk says, "encompassing all of humanity's possibilities in a more perfect way than most humans are able to. For me, this piece has an incredible geniality and charm and invention, and then these moments of tremendous pathos." Listen to the interview and performance here.

Rokia Traoré spoke with NPR's All Things Considered about her new album, Beautiful Africa, and the inspiration behind its songs, not least her fellow Malian and African women. "These women are simply amazing because when I feel tired, I imagine them in their life of every day. They never show that they are tired. They are like iron women: all the time working, but working and smiling and taking care of everything with nothing to support them," she explains. "I wanted to ... say thank you for being my source of inspiration."

Ry Cooder's new album, Live in San Francisco, his first live album in more than 35 years, was released earlier this month. He spoke about the new album on the 4 O'Clock Report with Jon Wiener on Pacifica Radio's KPFK 90.7FM Los Angeles yesterday afternoon; the show also includes four tracks from the new album: “Crazy ‘bout an Automobile,” “Do Re Mi,” “Lord Tell Me Why,” and “School Is Out." The Morton Report says of Cooder's new album: "Once this man hits the high beams and races into it, there is A+ action guaranteed ... It's called live music and there is nothing better."

Iron and Wine's Sam Beam, who kicked off a North American fall tour with a sold-out show at First Avenue in Minneapolis last night, stopped by the studios of Minnesota Public Radio's 89.3 The Current while in town for the tour launch. He spoke about Iron and Wine's recently released Nonesuch debut album, Ghost on Ghost, and performed intimate solo takes on three songs off the new album: "Caught in the Briars," "Grace for Saints and Ramblers," and "Winter Prayers." You can watch the performances of the latter two songs here.

Rokia Traoré's new album, Beautiful Africa, is due out September 24, in the US, following its critically acclaimed international release earlier this year. But no need to wait till then to hear it. The album is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen. "Beautiful Africa is just as smart and lovely as its creator," says NPR Music's Anastasia Tsioulcas. Rokia Traoré kicks off her North American tour at Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival in November.