Promises - Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders / LSO (2021)

Listening to and appreciating this record would have been impossible a few months ago. I’ve outlined in this space how short my attention span for music had gotten. There’s no single here, no hook that you can favorite and stick in a playlist and go back to next year. It builds slowly, takes its time to unfold, and offers so much beauty when you invest the time.

The right-brained part: Composed by UK electronic composer Floating Points, performed with an ensemble of London Symphony string players and Jazz sax heavyweight Pharoah Sanders. It’s arranged as a theme and variations, although I admit that I hadn’t twigged on to that until I read the fact. Now that you’re looking for it, though, you can hear the little opening figure all over the place.

The left-brained part: there’s so much space here, and so much richness to each sound you get. I literally just went back to the same tracks a few minutes later and heard new things I hadn’t heard the last time. Stunning.

Tracks I liked:

You really should listen to all of it, but if you only have a few minutes, Movement 6 is a nice summation of what they’re doing here.