Ohio-born saxophonist Mark Turner is the virtuoso everybody in contemporary jazz wants on their albums – but a reluctant star in no big hurry to tell the world his own story. This set represents Turner’s leadership debut on ECM, in a quartet without a chordal instrument, reflecting an Ornette Coleman-like preference for polyphonic interplay. The second horn is Avishai Cohen’s (the New York trumpeter, not the composer-bassist), whose flawless wide-register range makes him the ideal Turner conversationalist. In parallel, the percussion and basslines of Marcus Gilmore and Joe Martin furnish breathlessly bustling accompaniments that dramatically enhance the creative tension. The title track (named after an Ursula Le Guin SF novel) is a soft fanfare that deviously swings on a stunningly circuitous tenor solo, while Ethan’s Line beautifully blends reed and brass, and The Edenist is a graceful, gleaming two-horn saunter over a bass walk. The set sometimes sounds like Birth of the Cool tunes floated over a 21st-century rhythmic concept, and it’ll be a 2014 polls contender for sure.