自ら立ち上げたEglo Records、PlutoやNinja Tune、Planet Muといった名門レーベルからのリリースでもその名を轟かせるプロデューサーのフローティング・ポインツことサム・シェパード。前作『Crush』が英誌ピッチフォークでBest New Musicを獲得、さらに神経科学の博士号までをも持つエレクトロニック・ミュージック・シーンにおける天才アーティストが、なんとジョン・コルトレーンの後継者にしてスピリチュアル・ジャズ界を代表するサックス奏者ファラオ・サンダースと共に作り上げた噂のニュー・アルバムが、トーキングヘッズのデヴィッド・バーンが主宰するLuaka Bopから遂に登場!

ロンドン交響楽団による美しい演奏に、フローティング・ポインツによる繊細な電子音、そしてファラオ・サンダースによる深いサックスの音色が交錯する、全9曲、46分にも及ぶ壮大な組曲が展開された圧巻の内容!
さらにアートワークは米タイム誌による「世界で最も影響力のある100人」にも2020年に選出されたエチオピア出身の現代アーティスト、ジュリー・メレツが手掛けた全てにおいてこだわり抜かれた芸術的極上盤!

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2021/02/17）

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

Rovi