Stephen Mejias

Clogs in the snow. Photo: Tamara Bogolasky.

Saturday, March 12, 7:30pm: Clogs, Shara Worden, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus will perform at Merkin Concert Hall (129 West 67th Street, New York). The performance is part of Merkin’s inaugural Ecstatic Music Festival. Stereophile readers who have enjoyed John Atkinson’s 2007 recording, Attention Screen: Live at Merkin Hall (available here), will be familiar with the rich, inviting sound of the space.

Sunday, February 27, 12-6pm: Brooklyn Bowl (61 Wythe Avenue, Williamsburg) will host the Collect-i-Bowl Record Show.

Vivian Girls's third full-length release, Share the Joy, will be available on April 12th, but you can pre-order it now. Get the LP with a free MP3 download for just $14; or get the LP on limited-edition teal vinyl with a free MP3 download for just $16; or get the LP, free download, and “I Heard You Say” seven-inch for $18; or get all of that, plus a cool American Apparel t-shirt and Vivian Girls button for $36.

Can you guess which offer I selected?

Marantz America will sponsor German classical and rock violinist David Garrett through his 21-city tour of the United States. The tour unofficially opened with a “flash mob” performance at New York City’s Eataly restaurant.

John Vanderslice’s seventh studio album, White Wilderness, marked by the enchanting, fluid maneuvers of the Magik*Magik Orchestra, was released last Tuesday. The entire album&#151nine twisting, coiling songs, spanning 31 minutes&#151was recorded in just three days, but sounds as purposeful and carefully conceived as a special gift.

Meanwhile, Vanderslice has another gift up his sleeve:

Last night, I listened to Mississippi Records’s latest Abner Jay release, Last Ole Ministrel Man, a lovingly packaged 10”, three songs on each side, rawer than winter in New York City.

I’ve been listening to Kompakt’s excellent Pop Ambient 2011 compilation, which opens with ANBB’s arresting “Bernsteinzimmer” from their album, Mimikry, and ends with Thomas Fehlmann’s interpretation of Gustav Mahler’s magnificent Symphony No.1. This is heavy stuff, and it forms the perfect bridge from the chaos of Las Vegas and the Consumer Electronics Show to the cold misery of mid-January in New York City. There’s warmth in this music, and it has a sort of transportational power. Meaning: It gets me the hell out of here.