The Wire's Contributing Editors, Rob Young and Anne Hilde Neset (also Artistic Director of Norway's Ny Musikk), are curating a festival in Oslo. The Only Connect Festival Of Sound is themed around A Tonal View Of Times Tomorrow, and takes place 7–10 June.

The festival includes the world premiere of Leif Inge's new work Recreeping Death played by El Doom & The Born Electric, plus György Ligeti’s Poème Symphonique, Julia Holter, Felix Kubin, Charlemagne Palestine, Rhodri Davies, Michael Duch, Eliane Radige's Occam I, a screening of the restored version of the 1924 documentary The Great White Silence with live soundtrack by Simon Fisher Turner, and more.

Antony Hegarty's Meltdown at the Southbank Centre in London has announced a batch of acts today. The female-heavy line up includes the Cocteau Twins's Elizabeth Fraser, Laurie Anderson's Dirtday!, Selda, Planningtorock, CocoRosie, Buffy Sainte-Marie, plus a performance, screening and talk by Diamanda Galás. Also lined up to play are New York duo Light Asylum, William Basinski (playing Disintegration Loops), Marc Almond's Marc And The Mambas playing their 1983 release Torment And Toreros, and New York drag performer Joey Arias, among others.

Dates for acts announced so far (there's more to come) can be found here. Antony's Meltdown takes place 1–12 August, and tickets go on sale 10 May at noon (8 May for Southbank members).

Icelandic cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir's next album, Leyfðu Ljósinu, is arriving on Touch next month, and comes packaged as a USB stick. The stick comes in three multi-channel versions for 4.1 or 5.1 systems, for playback on a computer with a multi-channel soundcard or on a surround sound system.

The album was recorded live at The University Of York in January 2012, and is packaged in paper, put together by hand by Guðnadóttir. This is the second USB release from Touch, the first being Liquid Music by Fennesz and Jon Wozencroft. For those without a multi-channel stereo system, the album will also be released on CD. More details here.

Former Coil and current Cyclobe member Stephen Thrower has contributed soundtracks to two DVD collections of gay short films. Thrower has recorded new music for Peter de Rome's short film Encounter (1971), The Fire Island Kids (1970) and Brown Study.

Thrower says: "The invitation to record music for the Peter de Rome shorts came about during the production of the BFI’s release of Duffer And Moon Over The Alley. Peter told me he used a variety of copyright music pieces for the films when they were screened back in the 1970s - Miles Davis or Messiaen for instance. He basically did what Derek Jarman used to do with his short films, and played his favourite records with them. I listened to the pieces he liked for a sense of mood and instrumentation, but I did say – and Peter agreed – that to record pastiche Miles would do no one any favours!"

The films appear on two collections titled The Erotic Films Of Peter De Rome, and Encounters: Four Groundbreaking Classics Of Gay Cinema. Both are released by the BFI. More information on here and here.

A book shining a light on Black Metal is to be published by Black Dog Publishing. Black Metal: Beyond The Darkness aims to see through the overshadowing stories of suicide, murders and church burnings linked to Scandinavian groups like Mayhem or Darkthrone, and focus on a more progressive assessment of the genre in the form of a reader.

Contributors include Nathan T Birk, Louis Pattison, Nick Richardson, Brandon Stosuy, Neill Jameson, Jon Kristiansen and Jerome Lefevre. Although there is no official publication date yet, the book is expected sometime in June. More information imminent here.

The Native Instruments showcase at this year's Sonar Festival in Barcelona will feature an improvising group tagged Mostly Robot, consisting of Jamie Lidell, Tim Exile, Jeremy Ellis, Mr Jimmy and DJ Shiftee. The group will be improvising with Native Instruments software and hardware.

Marcus Rossknecht from Native Instruments says: "Improvisation and real human interaction are the basis of the show. The idea is not to make technology the central focus, but show the musical virtuosity this technology enables."

Alongside the performers will be live visuals created by Berlin design collective Pfadfinderei.

Earlier this year Swans released a live 2xCD of recordings made on recent tours titled We Rose From The Bed With The Sun In Our Head. The discs, printed in a limited run of 1000 with hand printed sleeves, sold out in less than 24 hours. The album is now being given a full release as a 2xCD digipack, which will be out on 1 May.

The original release – structured as a crowdfunded project with tiered donation amounts which included guest lists, personalised drawing or song recording – was intended to help fund the recordings of the next Swans album The Seer. It includes recordings made in Melbourne, Berlin, and New York, and as before, Gira recommends listening at "generous volume level".

More details here.

Circle fans, prick up your ears: a specialist mailorder site has been launched to make releases by Circle and their related projects available in the UK. The site, NWOFHM! is a one man operation based in Glasgow, started by photographer Alex Woodward, who currently stocks around 50 releases from 12 labels.

Woodward, who has contributed to The Wire, says "an initial vague idea of starting an English-language fan-site began to transform into something a bit grander... I knew that Ektro had abandoned their UK distribution some years earlier... as a fan, it had become increasingly expensive to source their vinyl here in the UK, and keep up with releases, new bands, and side-projects. I decided that there could be space for someone in the UK to take it upon themselves to keep on top of it all and to provide a single home for everything Circle and related."

In the longer term, Woodward says he plans to add a forum to the site, and to build the site as a source for news and discussion. Full site here.

Bang The Bore has released a six disc CD-R compilation of tracks and live recordings to raise money to help buy a PA. The compilation includes tracks donated by Ashtray Navigations, Mark Sanders, John Butcher and others.

Seth Cooke, who runs Bang The Bore, said: "The compilation’s purpose is to put out some frankly mindblowingly good music; to raise money to buy a PA so that we can continue to put on shows in Southampton, and to help some lesser-known Southampton bands get some attention."

Cooke says that each disc is loosely themed, and includes Southampton-oriented material, Noise, DIY bedroom recordings, Improv, site specific material, among other things. More details here.

Record Store Day descends again on 21 April. While there's a slew of quick-fix vinyl pressings to wade through, and restrictions on participating shops, there's also some releases to watch out for and events to get behind. Here's our roundup.

Chicago's Numero Group is going all out again, setting up a temporary record shop and radio station, releasing two 7"s in editions of 100 plus an LP compilation of tracks. More details here.

Double Six are issuing a collection of remixes of work by John Cale with Maria Minerva, Tim Hecker, Leyland Kirby, Alva Noto and Actress on the buttons. Listen to Hecker and Minerva's remixes below:

John Cale - Extra Playful: Transitions (Preview) by Double Six

Other official Record Store Day releases of note include, but are not limited to: an Animal Collective four track EP, Bitchin Bajas, a Brotzmann/Van Hove/Bennick 7" on Cien Fuegos, a Daniel Johnston CD and T-shirt, a 2xLP of Devo live in Seattle from 1981, Faust on a split 12" with Like A Stuntman, a Ghostigital EP featuring Alan Vega, Nick Zinner and Sensational, Lee Scratch Perry on red, yellow and green 10" vinyl, Yma Sumac's Mambo (And More), a vinyl pressing of Zomby's Where Were U In 92?, an extended version of Machinedrum's Room(s), and a Mark Stewart 12".

Notable 7"s come from Mika Vainio, Talibam!, The Black Twig Pickers, The Fall, Tortoise, R Stevie Moore, Mouse On Mars and Prefuse 73, and Carter Tutti Void. Full list of releases here.

As per usual not everything will be everywhere, so if you're after a particular record, you may have to queue or travel. Remember as well, that under the RSD rules shops are not allowed to reserve copies for you. A full list of participating shops can be found here.

As for events, Jonny Trunk from 10am at Intoxica! records in Notting Hill. The Finders Keepers label will be in residence at The Drift in Devon, selling a limited edition mixtape among other things, and Raime and Blackest Ever Black will be playing instore DJ sets for Kristina Records in Dalston, where they will also have some out of print Blackest Ever Black records on sale at reasonable prices.

Email jennifer[at]thewire.co.uk for events or releases to add.