Promises
- Scores: Noise 1, Unease 2, Complexity 2 (each 1 to 5)
- Genre: Jazz, Spiritual jazz
- Mood: serene, luminous, hypnotic
- Sound: nine-movement suite, repeating harpsichord figure, ambient electronics, strings, saxophone, single continuous work
Promises is a single composition by Sam Shepherd (Floating Points) in nine movements, recorded with Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra. A short motif played on synthesiser, piano and harpsichord returns in different forms throughout, while Sanders' tenor saxophone appears intermittently and he adds wordless vocals in the fourth movement. The main sessions took place in Los Angeles in summer 2019 and the strings were recorded at AIR Studios in London in summer 2020. The strings peak in the sixth movement, the motif fades in the eighth, and several false endings lead to the ninth. It was Sanders' first studio album in over a decade and his last.
Track list
- Movement 1 (6:24)
- Movement 2 (2:31)
- Movement 3 (2:32)
- Movement 4 (2:31)
- Movement 5 (4:25)
- Movement 6 (8:50)
- Movement 7 (9:28)
- Movement 8 (7:22)
- Movement 9 (2:30)