Bill Frisell's latest Nonesuch release, Disfarmer, features music inspired by the haunting black-and-white images of the late American photographer Michael Disfarmer, with performances by Frisell on guitar, Greg Leisz on steel guitars and mandolin, Jenny Scheinman on violin, and Viktor Krauss on bass.

The Houston Chronicle gives the album a perfect four stars. "Disfarmer's photos tipped the paper boat into the water for the always innovative guitarist Frisell," says the Chronicle's Andrew Dansby, "but Disfarmer is more than a soundtrack to a collection of photos."

While the exploration of American roots music and the process of setting music to visuals are not new to Frisell, says Dansby, this collection is indeed something different. Disfarmer, he concludes,

is a particularly beautiful suite of music. Frisell's pacing is magnificent, and the album sweeps along with purpose like a gorgeous, spacious epic. It is full of sounds that suggest settings and characters, including the mysterious eccentric who inspired the recording.

Read the complete four-star review at chron.com.

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All About Jazz reviewer John Kelman says that with the new album, "Frisell manages to capture the ambience of Disfarmer's work, at times as ethereally static as those single frames, but elsewhere inspired to create pulsating Americana music that continues to skew ever so slightly—a longtime definer of Frisell's best work."

Kelman goes on to praise "the effortless interaction and instrumental acumen of its participants ... Less about soloing and more about mining the essence of the simplest melody, Frisell's quartet proves capable of empathic exploration throughout."

Read the complete review at allaboutjazz.com.