Floating Points

Samuel Shepherd, known professionally as Floating Points, is a British electronic music producer, DJ, and musician.

He is the founder of Pluto Records, co-founder of Eglo Records and leader of a 16-piece group called Floating Points Ensemble.

Raised in Manchester, England, Shepherd studied piano at Chetham's School of Music before receiving a PhD in neuroscience and epigenetics at University College London.

He also worked as a DJ at Plastic People, a London club, in the late 2000s.

In late 2008, Shepherd and Alexander Nut launched the Eglo record label.

Eglo Records had released music by Floating Points, Fatima, Funkineven, Steve Spacek, Dego & Kaidi, Shafiq Husayn, K15, Mizz Beats, Natalie Slade, Destiny71z, Shy One, Henry Wu, Chunky and others.

He began releasing work under the Floating Points moniker in 2008, and in 2017 toured with The xx.

He also featured on bills with The Chemical Brothers, Bicep, FKA Twigs, Foals, Jungle, and Jon Hopkins and he has remixed Thundercat, Caribou, Basement Jaxx, Skepta & Headie One.

Elaenia was the first studio album by Sam Shepherd and released under his alias Floating Points.

In 2010, Shepherd performed with a 16-piece live incarnation of Floating Points, entitled the Floating Points Ensemble.

The group won an award for "Best BBC Radio 1 Maida Vale Session".

In 2015, Shepherd founded Pluto records.

He released projects such as Eleania, Kuiper, Crush, and Reflections: Mojave Desert from the label.

Shepherd's musical influences include Claude Debussy, Olivier Messiaen, and Bill Evans.

It was released on 6 November 2015.

At the time of the Elaenia release, Shepherd launched an 11-piece live show and immediately sold-out a string of global live dates including headline shows at Islington Assembly Hall and two dates at Electric Brixton in London.

Elaenia featured on many of 2015’s “Album of the Year” lists including: Resident Advisor (#1), XLR8R (#2), Mixmag (#3), Bleep (#6), Dummy (#9) The Guardian (#16), Clash (#19), Pitchfork (#20) and was ‘Album of the Month’ for Rough Trade.

This was the first in a planned series of environmental recordings by Shepherd to be filmed and recorded at different locations around the world.

The album recording was accompanied by a short film produced by long-time collaborator Anna Diaz Ortuño of Hamill Industries.

Taking its name from the surroundings in which it was formed, the album came together in August 2016 in the Mojave Desert when Shepherd and his band were rehearsing for their upcoming US tour.

While out there they found that their surroundings offered a unique recording environment that led to the album's formation.

Floating Points explained: "Whilst we were out playing and exploring the area around us – the sound reflecting from the rocks, the sound of the wind between them, complete stillness at night and packs of roaming coyotes in the distance, it became apparent that we could use this as its own unique recording environment”. This intuitiveness has led to some of the most incredibly creative and sonically tuned takes on library, chamber, and kosmiche jazz that Floating Points has ever conceived.”

Reflections: Mojave Desert begins with chords played on a Rhodes Chroma and recorded with a surround sound microphone.

Throughout the filming, microphones were placed throughout the landscape to capture the natural sonic textures of the desert: the undulating sound of wind, a bird call, the rustling of bushes and more created a backdrop on which much of the record rests.

The music softly shifts from the Fender Rhodes introduction to ‘Silurian Blue’, an expansive full band piece that balances refined restraint with explosiveness.

In one scene, ‘Kites’, Shepherd walks through a valley with a super directional microphone, swinging it back and forth as a synthesiser loop gets faster to showcase the natural reverb and shifting phase of sound waves.

‘Kelso Dunes’ signals the film’s final act: the sky grows dark, lasers flash, the band and rocks gleaming in the pitch black around them.

In 2019 Shepherd contributed towards the iconic Late Night Tales compilation series, further cementing his reputation as a highly respected curator of music.

Crush was the second studio album by Shepherd released under his alias Floating Points by Ninja Tune.

It was released on 18 October 2019.

Crush was well placed on numerous Album of the Year lists including Mixmag (#2), Magnetic Mag (#2), Loud and Quiet (#9), Dummy (#9), The Vinyl Factory (#22) and DJ Mag (#25).

There were favourable reviews from Pitchfork (Best New Music, 8.3), Mixmag (Album of the Month, 9/10), Loud and Quiet (9/10), The Observer (4/5), The Independent (4/5), Resident Advisor (4/5), CRACK Magazine (8/10), Financial Times (4/5) and others.

During the Crush tour, Floating Points sold-out shows at Printworks (London), Elysee Montmartre (Paris) and Funkhaus (Berlin).

The Printworks show included massive floor-to-ceiling projections and received glowing reviews from The Times, Resident Advisor and The 405.

During lockdown, Shepherd collaborated with KDV Dance Ensemble and Boiler Room to host an interactive live stream on Zoom.

He was Interviewed by New York Times.

The album Promises was released on 26 March 2021 with Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra.

It was nominated for the Mercury Prize 2021 and reached #6 in the Official UK Albums Chart and #1 in the Official UK Vinyl Albums Chart.

The album was released on New York label Luaka Bop.

Sanders was impressed by Elaenia and befriended Shepherd, who was 40 years younger than him.