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A mecca for classical composers looking for ways to bridge music and technology, IRCAM in Paris has been an incubator for some of the most compelling developments in contemporary classical music and acoustics of the past three decades.

Alexander Tucker got his start in the early 1990s in a hardcore band called Suction. Later he played synths in a space-rock group in Detroit. These days he lives in the U.K. where he writes and records as a solo artist. Tucker recently released his third album, Portal, through the London-based ATP Recordings. It's a rich mix of styles, featuring the finger-picking folk of Tucker's guitar, along with psychedelic rock, drones, detuned guitars, and sound loops.

By the time she was 16, Janis Ian already had a Grammy and a permanent place in the American consciousness. Her new autobiography shares the sometimes shocking stories behind her life and music. In a session from Folk Alley, she performs a cross section of her songs.

On Life, Death, Love and Freedom, iconic heartland rocker John Mellencamp distances himself from his musical brand and makes a turn toward rumbling folk and blues. With the help of producer T-Bone Burnett, Mellencamp created a new textured, acoustic sound.

A quartet originally formed in Madison, Wis. in 1996, The Great Depression is now based in Denmark. The moniker is an especially fitting one, as the ten songs on the Great Depression's third and latest full-length album, Forever Altered, all drift through gray and somber landscapes. But its melancholia is sophisticated rather than melodramatic.

This election season, hip-hop artists flocked to their mixing boards in unprecedented fashion in support of Barack Obama. Rapper Young Jeezy and professor Mark Anthony Neal discuss the effect of an African-American president-elect on hip-hop.

Take a look at musician and songwriter Peter Broderick's resume and you'll likely have a hard time believing that he's only 21 years old. Not only does Broderick play violin for the experimental Danish rock group Efterklang, but he recently released Home, a lovely solo album with delicate harmonies and acoustic guitar.

It was quite a feat for KEXP to get the whole Hercules & Love Affair crew on the air.

The violinist has spent his life stretching the definition of classical musician. Here he describes his introduction to the violin and his collection of instruments.

Though he now lives in Seattle, folk musician Darren Smith grew up across Washington's eastern border in the small college town of Moscow, ID. With a secluded population of only 22,000, Moscow bills itself as the "Heart of the Arts." It might sound like an unlikely title, but Moscow, ID is also the home of singer-songwriter Josh Ritter. "Maybe it's the cold winters and isolation that brings out the artistic drive in people," Smith says.