In My Dreams

Frisell likes to remember a dream he had that transformed the way he thinks about music and his instrument. It occurred more than three decades ago, but he can recall it today as if he just snapped awake, roused by a mix of fright and awe. In the dream, Frisell finds himself in a breathtaking library surrounded by stacks of leather-bound volumes and antiquities. At the center of the room is a table, and seated around the table are several monk-like figures in hoods. They seem forbidding at first, but quickly reveal themselves as warm and welcoming. “We want to show you what things really are,” they say. “First, we’d like to show you what colors really look like.”

Frisell narrates: “So they open this little box and take out these small blocks. They point to one and say, ‘This is what red looks like.’ And it’s the most intense, beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Then they say, ‘We know you’re a musician, so we’d like you to hear what real music sounds like.’ It felt like some sort of tube was going into my forehead and moving around, and it was the most incredible sound I’d ever heard. Nino Rota, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Charles Ives, Jimi Hendrix, Hank Williams, Andrés Segovia, Robert Johnson — all this music I love, but all the parts were crystal clear. And then I woke up.”

Ever since, Frisell has been chasing the ideal of purity and vibrancy he experienced that evening in twilight. And he’s gotten closer than ever with the group of trusted collaborators he’s assembled for In My Dreams. “There have been times, over the years,” Frisell says, “where I’d be playing with these guys and it felt like I was approaching that dream I had all those years ago, where all that music was happening simultaneously.”

One way to see In My Dreams is as a meeting of two core groups. The first is the guitarist’s trio with Morgan and Royston, most recently heard on Frisell’s 2020 LPValentine. The second is Frisell’s go-to string section, for lack of a better term, featuring Scheinman, Kang and Roberts, which debuted as a unit 20 years ago on Richter 858. A more accurate way to describe the lineup is to say that these are some of Bill Frisell’s favorite musicians, who’ve crisscrossed in his performances and recordings for decades, fostering a deep camaraderie. Frisell, “Throughout all these years, this group has just been sort of popping up as my guys, you know?”

That chemistry is evident throughout In My Dreams, which employs an elastic and inspired approach to production, through the oversight of producer Lee Townsend and veteran engineer Adam Muñoz. All of the core tracks were recorded live in 2025, at concerts in Brooklyn, Denver and New Haven. For certain songs, additional recording took place under Muñoz’s guidance at Opus Studios, in Berkeley, Calif. — and not simple note corrections, but full sections and soundscapes. The result is an ingenious hybrid recording, flawlessly melding the spontaneity of live performance with the sonic craft that can only be achieved in the studio.

Bill Frisell In My Dreams

Song List
1.  Trapped in the Sky (2:07) (Bill Frisell, Friz-Tone Music, BMI)
2.  When We Go (7:52) (Bill Frisell, Friz-Tone Music, BMI)
3.  In My Dreams  (5:12) (Bill Frisell, Friz-Tone Music, BMI)
4. Isfahan (6:33) (Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, Tempo Music Inc., BMI)
5.  Give Me a Home (2:53) (Bill Frisell, Friz-Tone Music, BMI)
6.  Why? (3:17) (Bill Frisell, Friz-Tone Music, BMI)
7.  Curtis (a year and a day) (7:24) (Bill Frisell, Friz-Tone Music, BMI)
8. Hard Times (4:42) (Stephen Foster, Public Domain)
9.  Again (6:16) (Bill Frisell, Friz-Tone Music, BMI)
10. Small Hands (6:19) (Bill Frisell, Friz-Tone Music, BMI)
11. Never Too Late (4:06) (Bill Frisell, Friz-Tone Music, BMI)
12. Home on the Range (5:37) (Daniel E. Kelly/Brewster M. Higley, Public Domain)

Bonus tracks:
1.  March (1:10) (Ron Miles, Distance for Safety Music, BMI)
2.  Skippy (2:19) (Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Music Corp., BMI)

Credits:
Bill Frisell - Electric and Acoustic Guitars
Jenny Scheinman - Violin
Eyvind Kang - Viola
Hank Roberts - Cello
Thomas Morgan - Bass
Rudy Royston - Drums

Produced by Lee Townsend

Arranged by Bill Frisell

Recording Engineers: Kevin Lee at The Newman Center, Denver, CO
Joseph Branciforte at Roulette Intermedium, Brooklyn, NY
Nick Lloyd at Firehouse 12, New Haven, CT

Additional Recording and Editing: Adam Muñoz at Opus Studios, Berkeley, CA

Mixing Engineer: Adam Muñoz at Opus Studios, Berkeley, CA

Mastered by Greg Calbi / Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound, Edgewater, NJ

Live Sound: Claudia Engelhart

Thanks to:  Peter Williams, Phyllis Oyama, Claudia Engelhart, Scott Levy and Greenbox Arts, Gyan Riley, Eva Soltes and everyone at Lou Harrison House, Peter Wildermuth, Cassandra Holden and everyone Bombyx Center for the Arts and Equity, Wake the Dead Donuts, Luke Bergman, Carole d’Inverno, Jim Staley, Jamie Burns, Amanda Davis, Ian Bjornstad and everyone at Roulette Intermedium, Firehouse 12, Narrows Center for the Arts, Kevin Lee, Kyle Zender, Don Lucoff, Dale Bruning, Tony Sherr, Greg Tardy, Ashley Capps, Monica Frisell, Adam Sher, D’Addario Strings, Andy Pitcher, TK Smith, Creston Lea, Tim Angulo, J.W. Black, Terry Turrell.

Space Create

Create space. 
Trust space. 
Story space.
Listen space. 
Forgiveness space. 
Argue space. 
Resolution space. 
More space. 
Less space. 
Danger place.
Safe space. 
Open space. 
Play space. 
Lonely place. 
Peace space. 
Lovely space. 
The right space. 
Space place. 
Time space. 
Outer space. 
More space. 
Big space. 
Love space.