

There’s a difference between music to zone out to and music that quietly but persistently stimulates thought; Eternal Spring, the first album led by Portico Quartet saxophonist and flautist Jack Wyllie, is the latter. This is music that conjures a whole beautiful, semi-secret history of sound from Eastern classical (“Actor”) to European jazz (“Pavilion”), New Age drift (“Juniper”) to brisk, soundtrack-ready minimalism (“Magazine”). Subtle but decisive, beautiful but purposeful, and packs a surprising amount of drama into such an easygoing, chilled-out space. Get a cup of coffee and call it a productive morning.