Promises (Luaka Bop)

Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra

Released March 26, 2021

JazzTimes Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2021

New York Times 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2021

AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2021

BBC Best Albums of 2021

Arts Fuse 2021 Jazz Critics Poll Top 10 New Album

JAZZ FM Album of The Year Nominee 2021

Stereogum 10 Best Jazz Albums Of 2021

YouTube:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m4oH0MlcSO_9MADlNSvGWbiGPACnT7nqQ

Spotify:

About:

Promises, a composition for Saxophone, Strings, Keyboards and Electronics, was written by Sam Shepherd, aka Floating Points. I’ll go out on a limb and suggest Pharoah’s bears had what we’re all looking for — Beauty. Sweeping, stirring, majestic beauty. Promises is one of those rare beasts where seemingly disparate genres combine to form a singular work filled with fresh ideas, timeless beauty, serenity (who doesn’t an extra-large helping of that!), and classic, historically classic, karma chops.

Sam: Pharoah…

Pharoah: Huh…?

Sam: Were you asleep? I’m sorry…

Pharoah: No no… I was listening… and dreaming… and listening to music in my head…

Sam: Oh wow… sorry.

Pharoah: Many times, people think I might be asleep… but in fact, I am just listening to music in my head. I’m always listening… to the sounds around me… and playing, in my mind… and sometimes I dream.

Sam: What were you dreaming about?

Pharoah: I’m on a ship. In the ocean. Bears coming around smoking cigars. The bears are singing, ‘We have the music. We have what you’re looking for.’

* * *

Pharoah: How you like that take, Sam?

Sam: It’s cool. I think the bit in the middle, where it stops again…I think you can hear…We were both kind of confused. I like it as well because it sounds like two musicians that are trying to guide each other.

Pharoah: I think that’s it right there. It came out different. It came out good though.

Sam: You happy?

Pharoah: Yeah, I’m cool with it.

Sam: Okay. Yeah, I think your playing is beautiful.

Track Listing:

1. Movement 1 (Floating Points) 06:24

2. Movement 2 (Floating Points) 02:31

3. Movement 3 (Floating Points) 02:32

4. Movement 4 (Floating Points) 02:31

5. Movement 5 (Floating Points) 04:25

6. Movement 6 (Floating Points) 08:50

7. Movement 7 (Floating Points) 09:28

8. Movement 8 (Floating Points) 07:22

9. Movement 9 (Floating Points) 02:30

Personnel:

Pharoah Sanders: tenor saxophone and voice

Sam Shepherd: piano, harpsichord, celesta, Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3, Oberheim 4 voice & OB-Xa, Solina String Ensemble, Therevox ET-4.3, EMS Synthi, ARP 2600 and Buchla 200e

The strings of the London Symphony Orchestra

Written and arranged by Sam Shepherd

Conducted by Sally Herbert,

Recorded at Sargent Recorders, Los Angeles, California, by Sean Cook

London Symphony Orchestra recorded at Air Studios, London, by Jeremy Murphy

Recorded by John Prestage
Assisted by Ashley Andrew-Jones and Gianluca Massimo
LSO lead by Carmine Lauri
Score preparation by Olli Cunningham and Colin Rae
Mixed by Sam Shepherd at EMS4, London
Assisted by Tim Pennells
Lacquer cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering

Cover Painting ‘Congress’ by Julie Mehretu

Photo by Tom Powel Imaging

Design and layout by Paul Diddy

Executive Produced by Yale Evelev and Eric Welles-Nyström

Review:

An album featuring electronic musician and DJ Floating Points (the nom de plume of Manchester, U.K. native Sam Shepherd), the intensity of jazz saxophone icon Pharoah Sanders, and the London Symphony Orchestra seems on the surface built to overwhelm. Yet the anchor of Promises is a delicate, seven-note piano phrase that repeats every nine-and-a-half seconds. (Seriously: Time it.)

Sound dull? In fact, it’s enchanting: as if twinkling lights were blinking on, in preparation for Sanders’ warm tenor entrance at 1:28. He undertakes some melodic wanderings which continue as a subtle string bed glides in under him at three and a quarter minutes. His sax will then weave in and out of the mix—letting more frequent but still delicate keyboard lines (both acoustic and synthesized), whisper-thin orchestral tendrils, and his own soft, improvising bass vocal rise to the surface in its place—for the next 41 minutes or so. It sounds more like Sanders is working with Brian Eno.

Ostensibly divided into nine movements, Promises is formatted as a single track (or at least advance press copies of it were). There is both enough stasis and frequent enough fluctuation to make it impossible to tell by ear where the movements separate. Forget about it, then, and focus on the sumptuousness of the many episodes within. One of Sanders’ short statements introduces a gorgeous cello interlude (about 19:15), with the cellist never identified but sounding sublime. A lush and tender event for the strings coalesces about three minutes later, sounding like a movie cue but also carrying deep emotional resonance as it continues to swell. Then there’s a Sun Ra-esque psychedelic synth breakdown about three-fourths of the way through.

As for Sanders, he finally gets a release about 11 minutes before the piece ends, though it remains attenuated: a few coarse yelps, then back to the mesmerizing drones. He’s just a guest in Floating Points’ world … but what a beautiful impression he leaves nonetheless.

Michael J. West (JazzTimes)