Laurie Anderson's "Heart of a Dog" OST Out Now

The complete soundtrack recording of Laurie Anderson's newest piece, Heart of a Dog, is out now

on Nonesuch Records. Anderson was commissioned by the European TV network Arte to create a feature film—her first in 30 years. Her response was a personal essay entitled Heart of a Dog, a work encompassing joy and heartbreak, at the heart of which is a lament for her late beloved dog Lolabelle. Watch the film's trailer below. The Nonesuch album is the full audio recording of the film, including all music and spoken text.

Heart of a Dog has been shown at the Telluride, Venice, Toronto, London, and New York Film Festivals to critical praise and opened theatrically this week at New York's Film Forum. 

The film invites viewers to spend "75 enthralling minutes with the endlessly associative contents of Anderson's head and heart," says NPR film critic Ella Taylor. "Heart of a Dog is the ultimate realist narrative. It flows along, mimicking the continuous, fleeting, fragmentary flow of consciousness, the haze that lies between sleeping and waking, even between death and whatever lies behind it."

The New York Times' Manohla Dargis has made this "dreamy, drifty and altogether lovely movie" a Critics' Pick. "Heart of a Dog is about telling and remembering and forgetting, and how we put together the fragments that make up our lives," writes Dargis. "At times, it feels as if she too were haunting her movie even as, with every image and word, she fills it with life." New York called it "one of the most moving and provocative films you’ll see this year."

Warm Up with Quadriga Consort's New CD, Winter's Delights

Early Christmas Music and Carols from the British Isles, France and Canada Performed on

Period Instruments

Packed full of engaging and appealing seasonal offerings, Winter's Delights is Quadriga Consort's new album and welcome addition to Yuletide.

English composer and poet Thomas Campion (1567–1620) famously wrote 'Summer hath his joys and Winter his delights,' and the consort has taken this memorable line as its starting point for this attractive collection of popular and lesser-known winter melodies.

The album includes traditional English carols such as "The First Nowell," "The Three Kings" and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," together with Scottish tunes such as "Gloomy Winter," "The Traveller Benighted in Snow" and "Leanabh an Aigh" (The Blessed Child), better known in recent years as the hit song "Morning has Broken." From Ireland comes the traditional jig "A Merry Christmas" as well as the medley consisting of "Early in the Morning" (trad. hornpipe) / "The Ivy Leaf" (trad. reel) / "Christmas Comes But Once A Year" (trad. jig). Nova Scotia beckons with "The Stormy Scenes of Winter" and France happily presents "Noel Nouvelet – Sing We Now of Christmas."

There is a charm and freshness to this unconventional edition and, most importantly, a sense of joy and delight in music-making that cannot fail to cheer and lift the spirits, even on the bleakest of winter nights.

Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' Arrives on DVD, Blu-ray Today

Library patrons and fans of Dragon Ball Z young and old need to wait no longer.  Today, the eagerly anticipated video release of the summer blockbuster "Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F'" is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.   "Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F'" entered the history books as the first independent film to make the Top 10 list of highest grossing anime films of all time in the USA.  By the end of its limited theatrical run, the movie grossed more than $8.4 million – surpassing all industry expectations.

"FUNimation is pleased to bring the home video release of Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' to fans so soon after the highly successful theatrical release," said Gen Fukunaga, founder and CEO of FUNimation. "Demand has been just as high as during the theatrical release. The volume of pre-orders has been incredible."

The video release of "Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F'" is available in three versions from Baker & Taylor ;  two of which include 50 minutes of extra features.  Details on all three SKUs are as follows:

Sony Music To Release "HE NAMED ME MALALA" Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Sony Music proudly announces the release of HE NAMED ME MALALA (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). The original score for the film was written by multiple Grammy® winner and Academy Award nominee, Thomas Newman. The soundtrack will be available on CD October 30. HE NAMED ME MALALA opens in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles on October 2 and nationwide October 9.

 

Academy Award  winning director, Davis Guggenheim says of Thomas Newman's score:
"Watching Tom in his studio was pure artistry. His music brought the film to life pulling the characters' emotional inner lives to the surface, threading and bonding the story together and allowing it to be fully realized."

 

HE NAMED ME MALALA is an intimate portrait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her school bus in Pakistan's Swat Valley.  The then 15-year-old (she turned 18 this July) was singled out, along with her father, for advocating for girls' education, and the attack on her sparked an outcry from supporters around the world. She miraculously survived and is now a leading campaigner for girls' education globally as co-founder of the Malala Fund.

Now That's What I Call Music! Joings with Walt Disney Records

NOW That's What I Call Music! and Walt Disney Records have once again teamed up for a special NOW album collection showcasing beloved Disney music classics. NOW That's What I Call Disney Princess will be released on CD on October 30.

Building on the success of three previously released NOW That's What I Call Disney volumes, NOW That's What I Call Disney Princess features 20 favorite musical moments that have been enchanting and entertaining audiences for generations, including "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid, "A Whole New World" from Aladdin, "Someday My Prince Will Come" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas, "Beauty and the Beast" from Beauty and the Beast, "Reflection" from Mulan, "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" from Cinderella, "Waiting for My Prince" from Disney Princess Tea Party, and many more.           

Elvis Costello Memoir and Companion Album Release News

Elvis Costello has compiled a 38-track, 2-CD set 'Unfaithful Music & Soundtrack Album' (UMe, October 9 release) as a companion to his memoir "Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink" (Blue Rider Press/Penguin Random House, October 13th).

Costello has chosen songs that offer the deepest emotional connection to the themes and stories in his book. The set includes both hits and rarities including two previously-unreleased titles: "April 5th", written and recorded with Rosanne Cash, Kris Kristofferson and John Leventhal - and one of Costello's earliest solo recordings, "I Can't Turn It Off," from 1975.

The collection also features three exclusive "audio book sketches" that do not appear in the published memoir. and a twenty eight page booklet providing the complete lyrics and many unseen photographs, several of them from the MacManus family album.

Demi Lovato is CONFIDENT With Her New October Release

Just off the heels of an epic return with #1 iTunes single “Cool for the Summer,” multi-platinum selling recording artist Demi Lovato has no plans to cool down as she swings into the fall season with a release date of October 16 for her much-anticipated fifth studio album, ‘CONFIDENT’.  Released via Hollywood Records, the Standard and Deluxe versions of the album, feature production by Max Martin, Ryan Tedder, Steve Mac, Jason Evigan, Wolf Cousins, Savan Kotecha, and Stargate. ‘CONFIDENT’ marks Lovato’s first album release through a creative partnership between Hollywood Records, Island Records and Safehouse Records,  a label she created with Nick Jonas and their manager, Phil McIntyre

To celebrate her upcoming release Lovato will perform the chart-topping summer anthem for the first time on national television at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards this Sunday, August 30 at 9:00pm ET/PT on MTV. Lovato will complement her debut performance of the critically -acclaimed track in front of a crowd of fans on Jimmy Kimmel Live’s outdoor stage next Monday, August 31 at 11:35pm ET/PT on ABC.

RENOWNED RACONTEUR KINKY FRIEDMAN TO RELEASE FIRST ALBUM OF NEW MUSIC IN 39 YEARS

Nobody could invent a character quite like Kinky Friedman, the stogie-waving, black-hat-wearing Texas Jewboy singer, storyteller, tequila purveyor, animal rescuer and full-time iconoclast. Though renowned for penning some of outlaw country’s most outrageous songs, authoring bestsellers and running for governor of Texas, his 45-year career includes touring with Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue; recording with Clapton, most of the Band and Ringo Starr; appearing on Saturday Night Live and at the Grand Ole Opry; and writing one of Nelson Mandela’s favorite songs. He also became the protagonist of his own crime novels, because even he couldn’t invent a character that could out-kink Kinky Friedman.

But what he hasn’t done in 39 years is record a new studio album. Friedman’s The Loneliest Man I Ever Met, releasing October 2 on Avenue A Records/Thirty Tigers, might be one of the longest-awaited follow-ups in recent memory. Not that fans have complained; the continued popularity of tunes such as “Sold American,” “Nashville Casualty and Life” and “Ride ’Em Jewboy” (the Holocaust-referencing song that soothed Mandela in prison) prove Kinky is that rare talent whose work withstands the test of time. Friedman still delivers those songs — interspersed with his inimitable blend of politically incorrect quips, jokes and tales Still, there were more sentiments he needed to express — his own and those of colleagues such as Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard and his pal Willie Nelson, who produced and performs on his own “Bloody Mary Morning.” The album’s opening song, which also features Willie’s sister, Bobbie, on piano and Kevin Smith on standup bass, is rendered as a spare duet, their traded lines punctuated with Nelson’s Spanish guitar-picking. Conveying both immediacy and intimacy, it sets the tone for the other 11 tracks, all produced by Brian Molnar and featuring guitarist Joe Cirotti, with harmonica by Willie’s Family Band mate Mickey Raphael and piano contributions by Little Jewford, Kinky’s sidekick since his first post-Peace Corps job — bandleader of the Texas Jewboys.

Paul McCartney Adds Tug of War and Pipes of Peace Albums to Archive Collection!

MPL and the Concord Music Group are proud to announce two more landmark installments in the multiple GRAMMY-winning Paul McCartney Archive Collection. On October 2, 2015, Paul’s early ‘80s back-to-back classics Tug of War and Pipes of Peace will receive lavish multiple configuration reissue treatment including exclusive 2015 remixes of both the entire Tug of War album and the Pipes of Peace classic collaboration with Michael Jackson “Say Say Say,” a treasure trove of previously unreleased tracks and never before seen video, and much more.

Released in 1982, Tug of War was Paul’s first album following the break-up of Wings and his third solo LP overall. Hailed upon its release as “exquisitely crafted” by The New York Times and a “masterpiece” by Rolling Stone, Tug of War went to #1 in no less than nine countries. Tug of War yielded such classic tracks as Paul’s #1 duet with Stevie Wonder “Ebony and Ivory,” the top 10 single “Take It Away,” and of course “Here Today,” the conversation Paul never had with the late John Lennon that remains a staple of Paul’s live set to this day. Pipes of Peace, Paul’s fourth solo album, followed in 1983 and continued Paul’s early ’80s run of platinum records. Singles from Pipes of Peace included the title track and of course Paul and Michael Jackson’s timeless “Say Say Say,” a multi-format global chart-topping smash continually cited as a landmark of that or any year–as recently as 2007, Vibemagazine rated “Say Say Say” as one of the greatest duets of all time.

As with the GRAMMY-winning Band On The Run and Wings Over America Archive editions, Paul personally supervised all aspects of these releases and their various formats, which include:

photo: Linda McCartney

COMPILATION ALBUM "WE LOVE DISNEY", DUE OCTOBER 2015

In a unique collaboration between Verve Records and Walt Disney Records, the two esteemed labels have teamed up to present the compilation album We Love Disney, which will be released in October 2015. The compilation features the hottest artists from accross the pop, rock, R&B, and country worlds delivering their own unique interpretations of classic Disney songs. The album was produced by multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning producer and Verve Music Group Chairman David Foster.

"When the opportunity arose to partner with Walt Disney Records, I jumped on it,” says Foster. “The Disney franchise is something that brings out the kid in all of us. No matter how old you are, 3 or 103, when you hear the word ‘Disney’ you light up from within. And there isn’t a person on the planet who doesn’t have a favorite Disney song. We tapped into that passion with all of the artists on the album. I tried to make the songs timeless so you couldn’t tell whether they were recorded 30 years ago or 30 years from now. The Disney catalog is so amazing. You have so many songs to pick from, going back almost 80 years now. So it’s an endless treasure and one of the most rewarding projects that I’ve ever done — and I’ve done a lot of stuff.”

Stay tuned, the artists and songs that will be featured on We Love Disney will be announced in the coming weeks.