The Opener

Saxophonist Donny McCaslin pairs his angular, modernist tenor work with Mark Kozelek’s weathered baritone on this Motéma release, threading together post-rock sensibilities with free jazz abstraction. McCaslin’s skittering runs cut against Kozelek’s introspective songwriting, creating an unlikely meeting point between Sun Kil Moon’s folk-inflected melancholy and the saxophonist’s exploratory approach to timbre and phrasing. The result feels like chamber jazz refracted through indie rock’s emotional restraint.