Promises

Sam Shepherd (aka Floating Points) gets top billing for having composed this 46-minute suite. The keyboardist and electronic music producer met with tenor sax demigod Pharoah Sanders in 2019, and completed the recording in 2020 with the violins, violas, cellos, and double basses of the London Symphony Orchestra. This cross-generational collaboration is more natural than it might seem; some of Shepherds previous electric piano work has evinced an appreciation for the tranquility and restraint in Lonnie Liston Smiths use of the Fender Rhodes, heard first on Sanders Thembi. To Shepherds credit, his framework for Sanders is in the moment. Theres no evident intent to evoke any point in the saxophonists past, or even in maintaining continuity with the Floating Points catalog. Moreover, this is a fulfilling listen for those who hoped to hear more from Sanders the sideman on the 2019 and 2020 LPs led by Joey DeFrancesco and Bill Laswell. In the main, Sanders playing is soft and lyrical, not so much searching as observing, like hes strolling down a densely wooded path with Shepherds recurrent arpeggio flickering like sunlight through gaps in trees. (That motif is deployed with such frequency that it can be a distraction.) Theres a gradual ebb and flow through the first four movements, the last of which is enhanced by Sanders friendly vocal trills. His saxophone then becomes more active and clustered, yet tightly controlled, and early into the sixth movement yields to a mass of strings signifying a looming threat that dissipates before turning violent, seemingly cradled into silence. Up springs the arpeggio and Sanders saxophone, placid until invigorated by swirling electronics. Sanders emits piquant beams, never quite blasts, and fades out by the end of the seventh movement. Droning organs and violins that whisk and wrench are centered in the two final movements, finishing the suite with a sense of uncertainty. The trip is well worth completing despite Sanders early exit. ~ Andy Kellman

こんなコラボ作なんて誰が予想できただろうか。説明不要なサックス奏者、御年80歳のファラオ・サンダースによる新作というだけでも驚きだが、それがルアカ・バップ発となるフローティング・ポインツとの共作で、ロンドン交響楽団もレコーディングに参加しているというのだ。幾何学的抽象絵画で知られるジュリー・メレツによるアートワークも素晴らしい。五感をフル活用して堪能していただきたい2021年最大級のアート作品。
bounce (C)長谷川義和