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...

Sam Ostler’s new single, “Lights,” then. It unfolds less like a sudden, intrusive glare and more like the slow, determined burn of a really good stage light finally finding its mark after a prolonged blackout. It’s pop, yes, vibrant and undeniably contemporary as advertised – clean lines, clear intentions. Yet, there’s a certain satisfying heft beneath the melodic uplift, a feeling that these notes...