Floating Points

From Chetham's to Promises

Samuel Thomas Shepherd was born in 1986 in Manchester. He studied piano at Chetham's School of Music, where, per a Tape Op interview, the studios ranged from a MIDI room with Atari ST computers to an old analog room with a 2-inch machine and an Akai S950, and later earned a PhD in neuroscience and epigenetics at University College London. Wikipedia lists Debussy, Messiaen and Bill Evans among his influences. He co-founded Eglo Records with Alexander Nut in late 2008 and Pluto Records in 2015. The Vacuum EP (2008 or 2009) was followed by Shadows (2011) and Kuiper (2016), and the 16-piece Floating Points Ensemble won best BBC Radio 1 Maida Vale session in 2010.

Elaenia (November 6, 2015) was his debut album and has a Metacritic score of 85; he toured with The xx in 2017 and recorded the Reflections: Mojave Desert material in the desert in August 2016. Crush followed on October 18, 2019. Promises (March 26, 2021, Luaka Bop), with the saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra, reached 6 in the UK and number 1 on the independent and vinyl charts, and was shortlisted for the 2021 Mercury Prize, which Arlo Parks won. Sanders died on September 24, 2022 at his home in Los Angeles, aged 81. A one-off live staging of Promises took place at the Hollywood Bowl on September 20, 2023, with Shabaka Hutchings in Sanders's role.

Cascade came out in 2024, and the ballet score Mere Mortals premiered on January 26, 2024 with San Francisco Ballet; Wikipedia, alone, lists a 2026 score album on Deutsche Grammophon and a 2025 anime score, Lazarus, with Kamasi Washington and Bonobo. He produced Hikaru Utada's Bad Mode and was BBC 6 Music's artist in residence from July 15, 2024. Setlist.fm lists 353 setlists.