Billboard Bits: Nobel Prize, CSN, Carl Craig

Veteran artists Duran Duran and Gladys Knight, Latin star Juanes, U.K. pop act Sugababes and cellist Yo-Yo Ma are among the artists who will perform at the 2005 Nobel Peace Price Concert. The Dec. 11 event in Oslo, Norway, will also include performances by singer/songwriter Damien Rice, U.K. pop group Westlife, Georgia-born/London-raised singer Katie Melua and classical vocalist Katherine Jenkins.

The concert will be held at the Oslo Spektrum the evening following the official Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. The 2005 honor will be accorded to the Austria-based International Atomic Energy Agency for its work to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes.

— Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.

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The Crosby, Stills & Nash albums “Crosby, Stills & Nash” (1969) and “Daylight Again” (1982) will be reissued in expanded form Jan. 24 via Atlantic/Rhino. The sets have been remastered from the original tapes.

Featuring such tracks as “Long Time Gone,” “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” and “Marrakesh Express,” the self-titled set reached No. 6 on the Billboard album chart upon its initial release. It is appended here with a cover of the Nilsson-popularized “Everybody’s Talkin’,” David Crosby’s “Song With No Words,” “Do for the Others” and “Teach Your Children,” the latter of which appeared on the 1970 album “Deja Vu.”

Best known for “Southern Cross” and “Wasted on the Way,” “Daylight Again” was CSN’s first album in five years. It is expanded with a previously unreleased demo of “Might As Well Have a Good Time” plus the songs “Raise a Voice,” “Feel Your Love,” and “Tomorrow Is Another Day.”

— Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

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Techno pioneer Carl Craig is at the helm of the compilation “Fabric 25,” due Dec. 1 as the 25th release in U.K. club Fabric’s series. The Planet E label founder launches his set with a crunk radio anthem, Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait (The Whisper Song),” mixing it into his own Doppler-effected track “Angel” in a rare moment of rap/dance unity.

“I’ve always thought hip-hop is electronic music,” Craig says. “There are definitely a lot of connections between Detroit [techno] and what’s been happening with crunk and Miami bass and hip-hop as well.”

For further proof, Craig points to Missy Elliott’s upfront usage of what is arguably the first-ever techno record, Cybotron’s “Clear,” in her hit “Lose Control.” “When I heard ‘The Whisper Song,’ I was like, ‘OK, this is a hot record, it sounds like Snoop Dogg and Pharrell,’ but there was something else about it that was really fantastic and fascinating to me,” Craig says. “It definitely put me straight that we have similar influences when I heard [‘Shake’].”

— Kerri Mason, N.Y.