On Incidentals, Tim Berne’s Snakeoil add elements to their dense avant-garde jazz—and somehow create more space

In press materials for his intense new album, Incidentals (ECM), reedist and composer Tim Berne notes that the addition of guitarists Ryan Ferreira and David Torn (who also produced the record) grants some leeway to his core quartet, Snakeoil. The guitarists mostly work to fill out the sound field, letting Berne and clarinetist Oscar Noriega dig deeply into the leader’s serpentine compositions.…