Unleashed is an album that captures my overall headspace as an individual. This year I turned 30 years old and welcomed my firstborn child into the world, John Altin Sencalar. Two major milestones in any person's life, but especially mine this year. Unleashed represents my playing, my personality, and my overall attitude towards my career development. When thinking about this album, I take many chances that I would not have done in the past specifically playing the trombone in an aggressive manner that showcases both my vision as a soloist, and as an up and coming innovator. This album showcases my love for playing at difficult tempos, extended ranges, passages that are unusual for trombone, some extended techniques, and my compositional process, which is now taking a large turn from what I have written in the past. The recording session for this was so much fun, especially being able to record with players who have much more experience than me, yet are able to push me and have fun at the same time.

The first tune on the album, Unleashed, represents my playing on this particular track. Along with my playing, the intro of vibraphone playing ominous chords really set up the excitement of this track. At no point in time do I hold back from playing and filling up the spaces within my solo. This was the first track we recorded and I was definitely eager to get in and play with that rhythm section. I wanted to make sure to set the mood for the entire day. Along with that, the angular interlude and shift to Samba at the end represents me unleashing a different side of my thought process.

The rhythm section theme of the baseline between the bass and vibes in "Obsession" represents the ongoing sounds in my head whenever I get obsessive about certain kinds of musical devices. Having an ostinato bass line in my opinion can be very freeing, which is counterintuitive of its initial belonging to music. Whenever you think of this kind of device, you feel like you might be tied down, however, I feel like when you have such a solid foundation, it's limitless what you can do musically, both as a soloist and composer. The harmony of this particular piece seem to be able to lay over the baseline and create different contours, as well as emotions through the melody. Having the texture of vibes on this tune was really what made me consider using vibes for the entire record. It's a perfect example of my compositional process changing, as I'm now writing to work instruments that are not normally paired together, such as trombone and vibes. Forgiveness represents the cathartic and reflective emotions that come from forgiving a person, situation, or entity. For me I wanted to capture these solace and joyful parts of moving on from any kind of difficult situation, hence this being like Poinciana, with major sounding chords and harmony. I wanted it to represent all parts of happiness while being a dance and some kind of lilt.

"Set Adrift" is a tune penned by