Chromasonic: The Color of Music
Spontanea has a new album, released on Right Brain Records. It’s called Chromasonic, and it’s a unique collaboration with abstract visual artist Ellie Polk. The theme is synesthesia, a belnding of the senses. Spontanea used seven of Ellie’s otherworldly works of art as inspiration for the pieces on the album. That’s not the only cool thing about this record; Spontanea is joined by cellist extraordinaire, James Hoskins for this project.
Our new Right Brain Music Podcast episode, “The Color of Music,” lays out the the story. It includes interviews of Ellie, James, Kenny, Carol and Matt, as well as lots of music samples.
Continue reading for more details. But first, get a glimpse of Eliie’s style via the album cover:
Important links:
Read background on Spontanea.
View the Ellie Polk Synesthesia Gallery, where you can see the songs and hear the images.
Here’s a direct link to Chomasonic, the second album from Spontanea.
Here’s a direct link to Ellie Polk, where you can see more samples of her art.
Here’s a link to James Hoskins, who has several acclaimed solo albums and various other projects.
And here’s a link to James’s previous Right Brain Records project, the unique album Found Sound, with vocalist Vickie Dodd.
Chromasonic album credits:
Kenny Mandell - saxophones, flute and percussion
Carol J Levin - electric harp and percussion
Matt Benham - electric guitar and special effects
James Hoskins - cello
Scott Schaffer - bass, mandola and production
Garey Shelton - recording engineer
Ellie Polk - cover art.
The backstory:
Back in fall of 2019, when we were discussing the idea of a rendezvous with James to do a recording session, I happened to see a museum exhibit featuring small works of visual art. It was a treasure trove of surprises from dozens of creators. One artist in particula, got my attention. Her name is Ellie Polk, and she has a surrealist-abstract style. She uses color in a dramatic, otherworldly way that, to me, looked like improvised music. Her work was so original that I had to track her down.
Soon after, I was able to meet Ellie. We got to talking, and it turned out that the reverse was also true: she perceives her visual art as very musical. I got the idea to use a bunch of her paintings and drawings as inspiration for a set of recordings by Spontanea, with James making us a quintet. She was only too happy to sign on, and that’s what we did.
The theme of the session was synesthesia, which is a blending of senses that many people experience to varying degrees. Synesthesia defies the categories that our culture likes to assign. It’s not usually acknowledged as a thing. Neither is improvised music, so… perfect match.
James flew in from Colorado, and in early February of 2020 we gathered in a recording studio with seven of Ellie’s pieces before us. Here’s how it worked: Before each “song,” we unveiled one of Ellie Polk’s paintings or drawings on a screen in the center of the room. With no instructions or discussion, our engineer hit the record button, and away we went, interpreting each piece musically.
Keep in mind that the group had amet James just once before. It was as pure a right brain experience as you could design.
BTW, we also recorded a half-dozen additional pieces in the same session, and another Spontanea album, Quintaphonic, will be released later this year. Stay tuned for that… The podcast epsiode above includes samples of four pieces from Chromasonic and three from Quintaphonic.
That cover is below. What does it sound like to you?
