Winnipeg drummer, composer and producer Esteban Seunarine has released his third album, The Expanding Whatever, through his independent label Rice and Beans, turning the collapse of an earlier project into a stripped-back collection centred on groove, simplicity and everyday observation.
Led by the single “Arts & Crafts for Robots,” the 10-track record represents a significant creative reset for the Manitoba musician. Rather than continuing with a larger, densely arranged project that had been underway earlier in 2026, Seunarine abandoned that material following feedback from collaborators, friends and family.
A Scrapped Project Leads to a New Album
The original project, developed with longtime collaborator Ben Kensok, combined jazz improvisation with programmed and live instrumentation, strings, spoken word and layered vocal harmonies.
Ultimately, the team decided the material was not working as intended.
“It was the first time in my writing life that I felt like I’d genuinely failed,” Seunarine says.
That setback became the starting point for The Expanding Whatever. Seunarine returned to basic elements including harmony, basslines and groove and wrote the new album within a week, at times completing two songs in a single day.
The resulting material focuses on finding meaning in ordinary experiences rather than pursuing larger or more dramatic themes. Everyday images — including a garden, a person standing on a street corner and a dog — became part of the record’s broader exploration of attention and observation.
“I write jazz music for people who don’t like jazz,” he says, “and I should stop trying to fight that instinct.”
Winnipeg Sessions Capture Band Live in the Room
Seunarine and his new ensemble, Esteban Seunarine and The Kind Ghosts, recorded the album over two days at No Fun Club in Winnipeg with engineers Riley Hill and Nika Atefi.
Recording Without Headphones
The musicians performed live in one room without headphones, giving the sessions the immediacy of a rehearsal rather than relying heavily on individual overdubs.
Guitarist Adam Ciric encouraged the group to record three or four takes of each composition regardless of their initial impressions. The approach provided more choices during production and helped shape the final album.
The sessions initially produced 11 completed tracks. One was removed during mixing roughly two weeks later because Seunarine determined it had not reached the same level as the other material. Montreal-based Jon Kaspy handled mastering.
The Kind Ghosts Bring Together Prairie Musicians
Kensok remains on tenor saxophone and continues his role as one of Seunarine’s closest creative collaborators. Upright bassist Aria Rempel and pianist Alanna Fast, both connected to Seunarine’s years studying jazz performance at Brandon University, joined the lineup.
Ciric brought influences extending beyond jazz, including experience in metal and recording engineering. Seunarine credits his broader musical perspective with helping prevent the arrangements from becoming too uniform.
Two compositions depart from the album’s largely live, acoustic recording method.
“One for Lav” is a solo drum composition written for Seunarine’s dog, who died shortly before the recording sessions. Hill and Atefi subsequently added electronic textures, creating a deliberate contrast with the rest of the album.
“Varanda,” meanwhile, features guitarist Emmanuel Bach, who spent about 45 minutes in the studio recording several unrehearsed solos.
A Return to Simpler Musical Ideas
Compositionally, The Expanding Whatever sees Seunarine returning to triads and pentatonic ideas after previously pursuing increasingly complex harmonic structures.
During rehearsals, the musicians focused on using those simpler foundations to build narratives through improvisation rather than merely moving through chord changes. The approach contrasts with the denser sound of Seunarine’s previous album, What Blossoms from Bloodshed?
Among the musical reference points during the project were Aaron Parks’ Little Big and Styx’s The Mission, with drummer Todd Sucherman’s work providing inspiration for several subtle rhythmic references.
Caribbean, Latin American and Prairie Influences Converge
Seunarine’s musical background combines Caribbean and Latin American rhythms with his education on the Canadian Prairies. He studied jazz performance at Brandon University under Eric Platz, Marika Galea and Greg Gatien.
His professional career has included performances alongside Grammy- and JUNO-winning musicians including Sara Gazarek, Jason Palmer and Luis Deniz. He is also the recipient of the 2026 SABIAN Dom Famularo SEN Mentorship Award.
With The Expanding Whatever, Seunarine brings those influences together rather than separating them, combining jazz fusion, Prairie folk sensibilities and improvisation within a record built from a creative setback. The result is a project that uses deliberately simple musical foundations to examine the details and routines of everyday life.