FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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PLATOON RELEASES
Or, The Whale

featuring

Pulitzer Prize Winner Caroline Shaw and multi-GRAMMY Award-winning cellist Andrew Yee

Out May 15, 2026 on Apple Music and every major streaming platform

 

(New York, NY) Platoon announces the release of a new recording featuring one of the world’s most performed living composers, Caroline Shaw, and composer and cellist of the Attacca Quartet, Andrew Yee. The album, Or, The Whale, will be released digitally on all major platforms on May 15, 2026. The duo will launch the album with a concert at Kings Place, London on May 19.

The album features long-time friends and collaborators Shaw and Yee in a selection of original works and interpretations of existing pieces. From “Shenandoah” to “Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus” from Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, audiences will experience two artists working at the height of their creative powers.

Prior to the full release, a first single “Moby Dick” will be released on April 3, a second single “Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus” from Quartet for the End of Time will be released on April 17, and a third single “The Trees of Green-Wood” will be released on May 1. Born from the creative brainstorming that has accompanied late night pizza amidst their many summer festival run-ins, Or, The Whale is a profound sonic representation of the "hang"—that sacred, unscripted time where bonds are truly forged. Shaw and Yee have moved beyond the traditional composer-performer dynamic to create an album full of deeply connected duos that showcase their artistic partnership in its full spectrum. By revisiting and repurposing older material from Shaw’s catalog alongside brand-new sketches by Yee, the duo invites listeners to discern how familiar melodies sound in a new light.

On May 19 the duo will perform as part of Platoon Presents at Kings Place, where they will share an intimate evening of performance, featuring music written by the two of them as well as re-contextualised works by other composers – this is a rare chance to hear two of today’s most original artists in powerful musical conversation.

As composer and cellist Andrew Yee observes, this music is a direct reflection of the character of its creators: "Hearing Caroline’s music for the first time live, my mind was blown. Not only did I know that I wanted to play more of her music, but I got a sense that the person who wrote this music was my friend. I knew the kind of person she was based on the musical choices that she made: There’s a considered aspect, a kindness, a humanity to the way she writes music.”

At the heart of the record lies a condensed suite from their collaborative score for Wu Tsang’s 2022 film adaptation of Moby Dick, a project that saw Yee transition into a distinctive compositional voice of their own. This spirit of "craft" permeates the entire track list, notably in "Really Craft," which blends archival audio of 1970s quilters with intricate musical stitching. The song, which in its original form was led by Shaw’s design, is now made of existing works by Shaw and quilted together by Yee.

“I think this album has a very intimate listening experience,” said composer and vocalist Caroline Shaw. “We were able to take so much of what each of us has already done and create a new beautiful thing. It embodies what it means for us to be collaborators and yet have our own unique styles represented still.”

Also on the album is a song “The Trees of Green-Wood” which Yee wrote for Shaw to sing following a joint performance at the Green-Wood cemetery. Through a creative research project, Yee took a list of trees in the cemetery, organized them by diameter and attributed volume to their size. Yee refers to this piece as one of their “favorite things I’ve written.”

To round out the kaleidoscopic collection, the duo has recorded Messiaen’s “Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus” from Quartet for the End of Time. With Shaw performing on a vocal harmonizer and Yee on cello, the result is one of uncomplicated decadence.

Shaw and Yee remark: “There’s a sense of this question in the history of the Quartet for the End of Time: who is here? What do we have? What can you make with what you have? Really, I think this album is a snapshot of our friendship over time. It’s also an excuse to be together, and I hope for more of that: a place where we can make music, eat pizza, and paint.”

Or, The Whale will be available on Apple Music starting on May 15, 2026.
https://platoon.fm/ 
Download music here
Private streaming link is available here

Album art is available here and the booklet is available here
Artist photos are available here

Works:

1. The Trees of Green-Wood (by Andrew Yee)
2. Moby Dick (by Caroline Shaw and Andrew Yee)
3. Shenandoah (by Caroline Shaw)
4. Really Craft When You (By Caroline Shaw)
5. “Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus" from Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (by Olivier Messiaen)
6. The Light After (by Andrew Yee)
7. Will There Be Any Stars In My Crown? (by Caroline Shaw)
8. What Are You After? (By Caroline Shaw)

About Caroline Shaw
Caroline Shaw is a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed. She works often in collaboration with others, as producer, composer, violinist, and vocalist. Shaw is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in Music, an honorary doctorate from Yale, four Grammys, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. She has written and produced for iconic artists and ensembles across the musical spectrum, including Rosalía, Renée Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Tiler Peck, Nas, Kanye West, the LA Phil, the NY Phil, and others. Recent tv/film/stage scoring projects include “Leonardo Da Vinci” (Ken Burns/PBS), “Julie Keeps Quiet (Leonardo Van Dijl), “Fleishman is in Trouble" (FX/Hulu), “The Sky Is Everywhere” (Josephine Decker/A24), vocal work with Rosalía (MOTOMAMI), “The Crucible” (Lyndsey Turner/National Theatre), “Partita” (Justin Peck/NYC Ballet), “Moby Dick” (Wu Tsang), and “LIFE” (Gandini Juggling/Merce Cunningham Trust). Current touring projects include shows with So Percussion, Ringdown, Attacca Quartet, Roomful of Teeth, Graveyards & Gardens, Gabriel Kahane, and Kamus Quartet. Her favorite color is yellow, and her favorite smell is rosemary.

About Andrew Yee
Multi-GRAMMY award-winning cellist and composer Andrew Yee (She/They) loves making art. She is a founding member of the Attacca Quartet, whose recordings of the string quartets of Caroline Shaw "Orange" and "Evergreen" have each won GRAMMY awards. She can also be heard on the score of Alfonso Cuaron's tv thriller series "Disclaimer" scored by Finneas O’Connell for Apple TV and on Billie Eilish’s album "Hit Me Hard and Soft."
  
As a composer, she has written for film and television, including Wu Tsang’s "Moby Dick," "Love, Jamie," and the BBC show "We Might Regret This." She has had pieces premiered by the Zurich Chamber Ensemble, the New York Philharmonic and Caroline Shaw. Her new version of the opera "Carmen" was premiered in Zurich in 2024 at the Schauspielhaus Zürich. She recently premiered a new work for orchestra, choir and trans soloists called “Trans Requiem” at Trinity Church in New York City featuring the Trinity Choir, Trinity Youth Chorus and NOVUS orchestra. She also created a solo show titled “Halfie” drawing on her experience as a bi-racial trans woman and featured on WQXR's Artist Propulsion Lab in 2022. 

Her son Otis is the love of her life.

She plays on an 1884 Eugenio Degani cello on loan from the Five Partners Foundation. 
www.andrewyeecellist.com 

About Platoon
The multi-award and GRAMMY® winning label Platoon was acquired by Apple in 2018. The boutique artist-services company identifies groundbreaking talent from around the world, while providing invaluable and innovative tools and services to build their careers and reach new fans. Platoon landed its first success shortly after its inception when it signed the then-unknown Billie Eilish, laying the groundwork for her ascent to global stardom, alongside other household names such as Mr Eazi and Victoria Monét. Current signings include Saint Harison, Lenny Tavárez, RZA, Khaid, Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dalia Stasevska, and more.