Floating Points

Sam Shepherd grew up in Manchester, trained as a pianist at Chetham's School of Music, and spent the following decade earning a PhD in neuroscience at University College London - writing Elaenia, his 2015 debut, in the gaps between academic research. The album landed as Resident Advisor's Album of the Year, and set the template for everything after: jazz harmony and classical structure pulled apart and reassembled in electronic form, played live with a 16-piece ensemble. His 2021 collaboration Promises, recorded with saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra as a single 46-minute suite, earned a Mercury Prize nomination and sold out the Hollywood Bowl. Most recently, Shepherd composed Mere Mortals for the San Francisco Ballet, continuing a career-long refusal to stay in one room.