Spontanea

is a collective of Seattle-based improvisers of diverse backgrounds and influences. The interactive work of three soloists defines Spontanea'a music: Guitar innovator Matt Benham employs a custom array of effects to stretch the sonic borders of his instrument. (See/hear his solo album.) Carol J Levin plays an electrified harp, producing a span of sounds unique to that instrument’s pedigree. Kenny Mandell, an award-winning jazz performer and educator, uses reeds, woodwinds and percussion in myriad ways. Scott Schaffer adds bass and other strings to the mix and facilitated the recording process.

Together, Spontanea is more an improvising framework than a band. Everything they do is composed in the moment based on interactions of the members.

The group recorded its first album, Flow, in two 2018 sessions, conceiving the music (spoiler alert) spontaneously. Flow is a freewheeling tapestry of quartets, trios, duets and solos linked together in a single narrative.

Spontanea returned to the studio in early 2020, just before the coronavirus lockdown began, and recorded two free-ranging new records with special guest, cellist James Hoskins from Boulder, Colorado. The first of these new albums is called Chromasonic. Its theme is synesthesia, the blending of senses, and its songs are inspired by the work of visual artist Ellie Polk. This gallery shows the images the group interpreted, with song titles.

Right Brain Records released Quintaphonic, the third Spontanea album, in February 2021. It’s a series of improvised dreamscapes that show the group at its best.

Buy Chromasonic on Bandcamp.

Hear Chromasonic on Bandcamp.

“Musicians have long taken inspiration from the sensory world around them… Spontanea has delivered their own ethereal take on this with Chromasonic… a string of otherworldly soundscapes. You will enjoy these improvisations of their own, but I heartily recommend diving into each one by one with Polk’s paintings nearby to enrich the experience.”
— Haley Freedlund, Earshot Magazine
Buy Flow on Bandcamp.

Hear Flow on Bandcamp.

“The first release from the new label Right Brain Records is a warm accumulation of budding grooves, like sleeping next to someone new and taking so much pleasure in the experience that every new fold on the sheets appears exquisite.”
— Andrew Choate, The Unwrinkled Ear
Buy Quintaphonic on Bandcamp.

Hear Quintaphonic on Bandcamp.

“[Spontanea’s] newest presents another superb collection of improvisations—the quintet’s collective searching, charged with the taut motion of uncertainty, could not have been more timely. ”
— Ian Gwin, Earshot Magazine
 
“If you’re inclined to absorb and appreciate the acoustic free-form ESP record catalog from the mid-1960s and the soundscapes of experimental ambient music (Fripp and Eno, Eluvium, Steve Roach), then Spontanea’s Flow is a masterful sonic voyage to embrace.”
— Mike Moss, B2K Festival