Deluxe CD featuring 14 tracks and nearly 40 minutes of spoken word poetry and experimental music, four exclusive photo prints, sticker, hand-written and signed poem card and a stamped envelope.

Open is the official companion (or brother record) to 2021’s Distance, a collection The Advocate and Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge’s radio show praised in February 2021.

Following stand-alone singles “Life on the Line” and “The Novelist Apologist” in 2021, Open plays like an eclectic DIY mixtape with a “b-sides and outtakes” feel. The record boasts six pieces that are reimagined and remixed versions of Distance tracks—alongside eight unreleased poems that began life during the Distance sessions, but were not sonically completed until afterward.

Together, Distance and Open form a warm dialog on a variety of social, spiritual and personal issues—from tackling the debate over Confederate statues in the meditative “The Fallin’ Man” and the forgiveness-themed “The Fight Club,” to the acidic soul-searching of “The Second the Street Lights Come On” and the show-bizy, oligarch-aiming “The Distractions.”

In addition to Roedel’s poetry, Open features music collaborations with Ben Herrington (Minos the Saint, Burris), Emily Sholes Smith (Dellamemoria), and James West (Slomile Swift), plus percussionist Barrett Black, experimental sound artist Scott Campbell, and producer Cohen Hartman, alongside Roedel’s own audio mixing and instrumental explorations.

Once again, as with Distance, famed Baton Rouge-based fine artist Ed Pramuk’s art graces the cover of a Roedel Et Alia release, with his paintings on the front and back covers of Open. Damien Mitchell designed the album and CD package, and Roedel took the photographs featured within.