"A Celestial Event...Promises Stirs Feelings That Can Be Hard To Name" - Pitchfork, Best New Music (9.0)

“Pharoah Sanders and Floating Points Meet in the Atmosphere” - The New York Times, Critics Pick

"A Remarkably Intimate Experience" - The New Yorker

Tune-In To NPR Music’s Live Listening Party At 2PM ET Today

Watch Short Promises Film Here

Promises, the new album from electronic composer Floating Points and jazz titan Pharoah Sanders, is out today on Luaka Bop. This historic collaboration also features the London Symphony Orchestra and artwork by acclaimed artist Julie Mehretu, whose new exhibit opened at the Whitney in New York City, yesterday. 

Listen to Promises here: https://luakabop.lnk.to/promisesPR and watch this short film here: https://youtu.be/bozlIdtQ86g 

Five years in the making, Promises was composed by Floating Points, aka Sam Shepherd. Shepherd and Sanders recorded the album together in Los Angeles in 2019. Shepherd also wrote and arranged the score performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, which was recorded at AIR Studios in London in summer 2020.  

The album has been met with tremendous praise, including recent reviews in the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, New York Times, Vulture, MOJO, Uncut and beyond. At 2PM Eastern Time today, NPR Music will host a Live Listening Party on YouTube. The full Promises recording - a 46 minute-long continuous piece of music in nine movements - will stream following a panel discussion. Go here to RSVP and watch. Tomorrow, Gilles Peterson will host a full album play on BBC 6 music in the UK. 

Promises: Chapter I, a non-visual experience hosted by Luaka Bop and actor Jesse Plemmons this past Sunday, welcomed thousands of listeners from 70 countries around the world as they turned off their screens and did nothing but listen. Stay tuned for the next chapter of Promises, which will be announced soon.