Ninja Tune are turning 20. To celebrate, the label has planned a series of releases and events, including a deluxe boxset containing six CDs of new music and remixes from their artists, six 7"s, and a hardback edition of Stevie Chick's book on the label Ninja Tune: 20 Years Of Beats And Pieces, from Black Dog Publishing. Along with that, they're currently releasing a series of downloads on their site, one a week, for 20 weeks, available here.

Beginning 26 June, a globe hopping tour organised by Coldcut kicks off at the Montréal Jazz Festival, and then makes its way through France, Germany, Belgium, UK, USA, and Japan (click here for full details). 2 October will see a massive party at London's Ewer Street Car Park with performances from Coldcut, Amon Tobin, Roots Manuva, The Bug, Kid Koala, DJ Food, Dorian Concept and many more. A limited amount of tickets are available now from the Ninja Tunes online shop.

UK music and sound arts agency Sound & Music have joined together with London's new and experimental music venue Cafe Oto, to offer four grants of £2000 towards the creation of new live events. The proposals can be for events of any genre or format, but must lean towards experimental/fringe/underground activity and feature artists from outside the UK who have not yet performed at Café Oto.

If you're interested in making an event proposal, contact info@soundandmusic.org for more information and application guidelines. The deadline for submission is 1 July. Click here for more information. Click here for more details.

Markus Popp aka Oval, is set to release a new full-length album, O, in September, his first in close to ten years. In anticipation of the release Oval has made a track, "Ah", available for free download (which will also be included on a forthcoming ep Oh, to be released in June). O and Oh will be released on Thrill Jockey. Click here for the download.

Oh will have a cover designed by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, who was featured in The Wire 313, Cross Platform (check out footage of his installation here)

An open call out for participants in a week long series of workshops sound-mapping the old city of Taranto in southern Italy. The project is open to international participants, they must cover transportation and accommodation costs along with a €100 enrollment fee. Click here for more information.

Sound artist and musician Janek Schaefer has made available documentation of his recent sound sculpture for an exhibition at the Sydney Cooper Gallery in Canterbury. The work, Coda For John Dankworth, was made for the late saxophonist, composer and educator John Dankworth.

Mainly specialising in the recording of academic lectures and symposiums, Backdoor Broadcasting has recently made available free recordings of the Oxford Improvisers Eric Clarke (violin) Jill Elliott (viola) Bruno Guastalla (cello) Dominic Lash (bass) Philipp Wachsmann (violin) and others, from their performance, Squint, on 20 April, 2010 at Port Mahon, St Clements, Oxford. Click here for the podcasts.

Belgian label, Crammed Discs, have made a boxset of their entire Congotronics series. Featuring Congolese groups Konono N°1, Staff Benda Bilili, Kasai Allstars (and other Kinshasa-based groups), the boxset is available for pre-order now, with a delivery date from 30 June. It contains all five albums recorded by the artists, including Konono N˚1's forthcoming Assume Crash Position, in vinyl format, a 7" of a collaboration between Konono N˚1 and Akron/Family, a book of photography and a USB key with MP3s and videos. Click here for more information

The international acousmatic festival L'Espace Du Son in Brussels is calling out for submissions of acousmatic compositions to be considered for inclusion in the 17th instalment of the festival, 20–24 October, 2010. The Belgian Musiques & Recherches organisation is specifically calling out for work made for its 'acousmonium', a 76 speaker auditorium which allows for 44 separate paths of spatially projected sound to be mixed live by the selected artists.

The deadline for the competition is 31 May, registration is free. Click here for more information.

The Thrill Jockey label is set to release the last recordings made by the guitarist Jack Rose before he died in December 2009. The recording is a four track EP entitled Ragged And Right, made with D. Charles Speer & The Helix (aka Dave Shuford of No Neck Blues Band). Inspired by the raw guitar stylings of Link Wray's '3 Track Shack sessions', the album was recorded live in studio with no overdubbing. Ragged And Right will be released in June.

Also, Three Lobed Recordings have released a tribute album for Rose. Honest Strings: A Tribute To The Life And Work Of Jack Rose, is a huge (over six hours running time) download-only album featuring work from friends and fans of Rose including: Bardo Pond, MV & EE, Heather Leigh, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, No Neck Blues Band, Byron Coley with Son of Earth, Six Organs Of Admittance, Hush Arbors, C. Joynes, Cath & Phil Tyler and many more. All money from the sale of of the album will go to Rose's estate, the download is available here.

Akron, Ohio's finest art rock outfit, Devo, have posted 16 excerpts of newly recorded tracks onto their website for visitors to vote for inclusion on their forthcoming album, Devo's first since 1990's Smooth Noodle Maps. Out of all the songs, 12 will be selected by the vote. To participate, go to Devo's site, follow the links and have a listen to the tracks. Song Study is out 14 June, 2010 on Warner Bros.