February 24, 2023
Guitarist Julian Lage has released “This World,” a song featuring Lage and Bill Frisell alone together on acoustic guitars. The track is from his upcoming new album, The Layers, which comes out March 17 and is available for pre-order now on Blue Note Store exclusive color vinyl, black vinyl, CD or digital.
“’This World’ was originally written as a drone piece for the trio featuring Bill Frisell,” says Lage. “The idea was to state the melody and then have Bill soar on top of the groove as it steadily built more intensely, always remaining tethered to the E drone. After rehearsals, it seemed clear that it made more sense to go the other direction – more intimate, just two acoustic guitars approaching the song more gently and sparsely. I think this piece found its home in this more resonant realm.”
A stunning companion piece to last year’s View With A Room, The Layers is imbued with vibrant colors and exquisite interplay. The Layers features six original pieces recorded during the same sessions which yielded View With A Room, sessions which found Lage discovering new orchestrational possibilities by augmenting his deeply attuned core trio of bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King with the addition of Frisell. The new album marks a welcome additional offering from this meeting of two of modern jazz’s most distinctive voices with one of the music’s most skilled and inventive rhythm sections. The six songs on The Layers all share a musical spirit that stems from a more atmospheric world than its predecessor, half of them centered around the acoustic guitar, which further distinguishes the sonic palette, and all exploring longer-form structures with wider improvisational expanses. Produced by Margaret Glaspy, The Layers was recorded by Mark Goodell with additional production by Armand Hirsch.
“At its core, The Layers is a prequel to View With A Room,” says Julian Lage. “It has all the musical seeds that grew into what I consider the touchstones of View With A Room – a duo with Bill, a duo with Jorge, more atmospheric and expansive writing, Dave and Jorge’s incredible rhythmic and orchestrational sensibilities. View With A Room is a comprehensive look at these musical qualities we were so excited to explore in the studio, and The Layers offers a distillation of the various relationships within the ensemble and production team. Taken as a whole, The Layers has a heartbeat all of its own.”
