It’s a rare and bewildering thrill to encounter something as organically bizarre and entirely transportive as Koradan’s newest album, "Around the World...Music". The Italian duo Alex Baccari and Marzia Di Cicco are dedicated acoustic alchemists. They build the very tools they play. Through their patented centerpiece, the "Koritas," they have physically fused materials harvested from five different continents into a single resonating chamber. You...

To understand a song like “Over And Over,” you first have to understand the road it travelled to get here. This is not a track that sprang fully formed from a young artist’s ambition. It’s a gnarled, weathered thing, carrying the dust of a long and winding path. The artist, Block, is a name that echoes from the raucous, DIY-spirited New York anti-folk scene of...