Floating Points – Cascade (2xLP)

"Cascade" is an eruption of unfinished business. In late 2022, Shepherd, who is known for switching between genres as freely as his stage name suggests, found himself in the Californian desert to work on something new. "Mere Mortals", his first ballet score, created in collaboration with the San Francisco Ballet, was to be a collision of sound and dance exploring the ancient parable of Pandora through the prism of technology.

On 'Promises', his previous album released in 2021, he swapped his signature modular synthesizer carpets and intricate drum patterns for airy dreamscapes developed with legendary saxophonist, Pharoah Sanders, and the London Symphony Orchestra. This collaboration was so popular that a Mercury Prize nomination and a sold-out concert at the Hollywood Bowl in September 2023 followed.

Between these projects and an upcoming anime score for "Adult Swim", from the outside looking in, it might seem like Shepherd is leaving the dance floor for good. But while he was writing his ballet music during the day, he longed for the sweaty community of a dance floor at night. For the pulsating recklessness of electronic music. In November 2019, Shepherd released his critically acclaimed second studio album, "Crush".

"Cascade" was conceived as a follow-up to "Crush" to give the album (and the audience) the opportunity to experience Floating Points once again in its traditional form on a dance floor: full of Buchla rhythms, gliding melodies that enchant a room full of swaying bodies. The nine songs are allowed to smolder and spark for up to eight minutes at a time, allowing for a more expansive exploration of sounds and grooves than before. Almost a decade after his well-received debut album, "Elaenia", the composer has found ways to seamlessly incorporate his experiments outside of club music into his music designed for the dance floor.