Five Shapes: Improvisations for Oboe d’Amore and Percussion CD

Catherine Lee + Matt Hannafin
Released June 2015

“It’s less about whirlwind virtuosity than atmosphere, concocted from long tones, judicious use of musical space and silence, and intriguing musical choices.”  (Brett Campbell, Oregon Arts Watch) Complete review here

“Deep natural reverberations wash over Catherine Lee’s oboe d’amore, giving harmony to Hannafin’s percussive backbone. It’s like he provides a timeline so that she can imagine characters and express them as moods. The arch of each shape can be heard of as a story.”  (Sean Ongley, THRU Media) Complete review here

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Five Shapes is a suite of free improvisations for oboe d’amore and percussion that we recorded one late-summer afternoon at Hudson Concert Hall in Salem, Oregon. It is very much a document of that day, capturing the music as it happened, unedited and even untitled: Rather than influencing listeners’ perceptions by imposing titles after the fact, we wanted to simply present the music as shapes sculpted in time.

Formed in early 2013, the duo of oboist Catherine Lee and percussionist Matt Hannafin explores a musical territory that marries the space and stillness of an austere New Music sensibility with the openness of free improvisation and the elemental power of world double-reed/percussion traditions.