or, The Whale

A meeting of minds, united by empathy and mutual understanding, forged the fruitful collaboration between composer, violinist, and vocalist Caroline Shaw and cellist composer Andrew Yee. Or, The Whale offers an eight-course banquet of musical delights, some freshly created, others repurposed from existing works. “Use your imagination,” says one of the quilt-making women woven into the fabric of Shaw’s “Really Craft When You.” The invitation is readily accepted by Shaw and Yee, whose haunting take on “Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus” amplifies the intensity of Olivier Messiaen’s original cello line with sonorous chords from Shaw’s vocal harmonizer. Having established an irresistibly seductive soundworld with “The Trees of Green-Wood,” Shaw and Yee demand deep listening in the suite drawn from their soundtrack score to Moby Dick; or, The Whale, Wu Tsang’s silent film retelling of Melville’s epic novel. Their intuitive partnership flows like honey in “Will There Be Any Stars In My Crown?”, bringing ecstasy and mystery in equal measure to the words of Eliza Edmunds Hewitt’s old soul-winning hymn, and leaves existential questions hanging mid-air in “What Are You After,” ready for the listener to answer.