In the early morning of October 28, 2006, shakuhachi master Jeffrey Lependorf and east-meets-west percussionist Matt Hannafin arrived at the midtown Manhattan studio of the great recording engineer Sasha Victory, and proceeded to set up their instruments. It was to be only the second time the two musicians had performed together. Over the next several hours, the two would improvise nine pieces of music, spontaneously and without any prior discussion.
Eight of those pieces are presented in this recording, largely in the order in which they were played. Some are spare and hypnotic, some are bold and searing. Together, they create a raga-like evocation of time and place, the dialogue between Lependorf's traditional flutes and Hannafin's battery of drums, gongs, and hand percussion painting the one perfect portrait of that one October day, in that one room, in those nameless hours of the music's creation. These sessions are finally available here, in a beautifully engineered recording capturing all of the nuance of these spontaneous compositions.
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