Music

Roomful of Teeth is an exciting young vocal octet founded just three years ago and directed by Brad Wells. And if the group's name is a little, um, in your face, that's entirely intentional. Their eponymous debut album on New Amsterdam Records (funded via Kickstarter) is a thoroughly 21st-century re-imagining of a capella vocal music — experimental, multi-textured and more than ready to blur the lines between pop and art music.

Minnesota, a band featuring singer-songwriter Peter Himmelman, makes its first appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live in Grand Marais, Minn., in partnership with the North House Folk School. Himmelman appeared on Mountain Stage many years ago — way back in 1992 and '93 — but this is his first outing with Minnesota.

Trampled By Turtles makes its second appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live in Grand Marais, Minn., in partnership with the North House Folk School. Born in the early 2000s as the duo of singer-songwriter Dave Simonett and mandolinist Erik Berry, the band has since grown into a quintet and released six albums.

As with food, as with fashion, as with film, there does seem to be a distinct French style when it comes to composition. The much-heralded English pianist Stephen Hough has been studying what makes a piece of music uniquely French. It's resulted in his latest collection: the French Album.

With works by Debussy, Faure, Poulenc and a number of lesser-known composers, Hough says he considers this new album "a sort of musical dessert trolley."