Julian Lage (w/ Elijah Wolf)

Guitarist Julian Lage expands his horizons on View With A Room, a collection of 10 compelling original compositions that marks his second release for Blue Note Records. Having established a home base with his brilliant and deeply attuned trio of bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King—most recently heard on the guitarist’s acclaimed 2021 Blue Note debut Squint—Lage casts his gaze outward to discover new orchestrational possibilities with the addition of six-string icon Bill Frisell, who adds his inimitable voice to this absolutely stunning album.

Hailed as one of the most prodigious guitarists of his generation and “highest category of improvising musicians” (New Yorker), Julian Lage has spent more than a decade searching through the myriad strains of American musical history via impeccable technique, free association and a spirit of infinite possibility. The California-born New York-based musician boasts a prolific resume on his own accord in addition to collaborating with Gary Burton and John Zorn, as well as duo projects with Nels Cline, Chris Eldridge and Fred Hersch, among others.

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Following the emotional high of his 2021 full length album Brighter Lighting (which featured Wilco’s Nels Cline on guitar) and a run of prestigious tour dates and performances at Newport Folk Festival, Austin City Limits and The End of the Road in England, Wolf returned to New York directionless and filled with self-doubt, unable to write or record. After many months, he finally called producer Sam Cohen who encouraged him to come to his studio and throw out anything he had written and demoed and start from scratch.

“At Sam’s direction, we made a decision to take a leap and not recreate anything I had done already. We wanted to get away from the folk-rock band sound of traditional instruments in a room together,” Wolf explains. “In the end, I wrote a record about vulnerability, about the ways that mechanisms of self-protection can make you miss the good around you. It’s about allowing the walls to come down and accepting your own failures and imperfections.”

The result is Forgiving Season, a vulnerable 10-song collection that is a testament to collaboration and experimentation.