A reading list of over 20 music books intended to teach or educate, compiled by Wire staff to accompany The Great Learning special issue

Ahead of his performances at Big Ears Festival, the US electronics composer discusses process and his love of radio with The Wire’s Deputy Editor

Rob Young pays tribute to the former Talk Talk frontman

Ilia Rogatchevski catches up with the Polish quartet’s front man to discuss Gdansk’s tumultuous history, the films of Werner Herzog and the importance of boredom to the creative process

Roger Robinson and Kevin Martin share and discuss their new album, a meditation on loss and loneliness

“Why and how can a rock band like The Observatory exist in such a silent dream state?” Yan Jun discusses censorship amid the noise and silence of Singapore

The Art Ensemble Of Chicago frontman died on 9 January. Howard Mandel recalls several encounters with the musician, and a gig cancellation that had him dodging the collective for several years

In her memoir of the great US jazz drummer, educator and pharmacist, Val Wilmer recalls her visit to Alvin Fielder’s hometown of Meridian, Mississippi, where he introduced her to leading Civil Rights activists for her project to photograph the lives of black women

Extracts from Mark Sinker’s introduction to A Hidden Landscape Once A Week: The Unruly Curiosity Of The UK Music Press In The 1960s-80s, In The Words Of Those Who Were There

“Why did this gentleman blow up our speaker, mom?” “It’s sound art, dear.”

The musician and poet sounds out the meaning of his life in art

On the first anniversary of Murray’s death, Pierre Crépon pays tribute to the pioneering free drummer by documenting his early years as a leader on the international scene

Read an unpublished interview with the late US saxophonist and synth player Marzette Watts, conducted at his home in New York City on 3 July 1974. Transcribed, edited and introduced by Pierre Crépon

Reflections on how the pianist and native New Yorker's connection with Africa went from symbolic to real

“Throughout the 80 year span of his life Kosugi followed an independently minded course with luminous clarity of intent”

The groundbreaking producer and Soul Assassins founder talks to The Wire's Deputy Editor Joseph Stannard about Cypress Hill, collaboration and changing while remaining the same

Ahead of the release of her new album İstikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir, Shane Woolman catches up with the Turkish musician to talk about Nirvana and Zeki Müren, LGBT issues in Turkey, psych revival and consistent dreaming

Gazelle Twin shares her forthcoming album Pastoral, which examines the fear and loathing behind the lace curtains of Olde England: “I felt like I was bristling with dread, like things were closing in on us all. I suddenly felt very aware of the violence and injustice that lay behind almost everything I deemed nice.’’

Russian underground chronicler Artemy Troitsky talks to Ilia Rogatchevski about Leto, Kirill Serebrennikov's new film documenting the 1980s Soviet rock scene

To mark its release, fellow bass player and writer Clayton Thomas discusses the lasting legacy of Phillips’s 50 year old debut solo LP Journal Violone