Floating Points shares a selection of his favourite tracks
Over the past 20 years, electronic music has indelibly permeated culture and taken an intensely cerebral turn. Many influential composers have turned to computers in order to assemble sound collages that are more complex and musically riveting than anything else available. While it might seem a paradox, these artists are the classical composers of the contemporary era, and one man has been critical to this sea change: Floating Points.
Real name Samuel Shepherd, over the past 15 years, the Mancunian has instilled real innovation into the craft of electronic music, with his intellectual nature aptly delineated by mention of the fact that he studied piano at Chetham’s School of Music and received a PhD in neuroscience and epigenetics at University College London. Looking back on the electronic pioneers of the past, I’m not sure how many in their drug-addled states could have managed such a feat.
A polyglot, aside from delving deep into the minutiae of biological functions, Shepherd’s distinctive and dynamic form of electronic music pulls from across the spectrum, with him naming influences in the likes of maestros Claude Debussy, Olivier Messiaen, Bill Evans, and an array of more niche names discovered by a life spent crate-digging across the world. Forming something of a game-changing triptych with close friends Four Tet and Caribou, together the three have re-written the rules for electronic music and instilled a crisp soberness into it, an ironic point given just how many mangled jaws their kaleidoscopic sound design has elicited.
Not only is he a musician of era-defining gravity, but Shepherd is also the founder of Pluto Records, co-founder of Eglo Records and leader of the 16-piece act Floating Points Ensemble. Furthermore, perhaps the most glittering offering he has released to date – which also tied together his refined sonic background and electronic career – is 2021’s minimalist masterpiece Promises, which he brought to life alongside the eminent saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra.
A lesser-known release Shepherd has committed his name to is the 2019 Late Night Tales: Floating Points compilation. A mix album curated by the Mancunian and released by Night Time Stories, it saw him delve into his myriad of influences, covering genres such as ambient, soul, psychedelic pop, and electronic. It features cuts by the likes of Sarah Davachi, Azimuth, and Max Roach.
When speaking to the label’s Late Night Tales imprint just after the album arrived, Shepherd dived into four of the 17 tracks he had chosen and explained what they meant to him. One of them was Robert Vanderbilt & The Foundation Of Souls’ ‘A Message Especially From God’. He revealed that he picked this particular single up at a record fair in Preston near Manchester and anointed it a “beautiful expression of soul”.
It’s always been special to him, as there’s a phrase where the vocalist is so out of tune he describes it as “almost irredeemable”. But, miraculously, the following is one of “the single most beautiful expressions” he’s heard. Unsurprisingly, this stark juxtaposition “redeems everything about it and then some”.
Elsewhere, Shepherd discussed the excellence of Carlos Walker’s ‘Via Láctea’. Dubbing the string lighting “phenomenal” as they fall chromatically, he explained that this cascading waterfall effect is heightened by being placed through a phaser, allowing it to wash over the listener. “It’s just so so wicked, beautiful and just a wild recording,” he added.
Find the rest of the tracks Shepherd discussed below.
