Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The LSO: Promises

- I must admit, it’s quite surreal to be reviewing a Pharaoh Sanders album as 'new' music. The octogenarian saxophonist is a blazing torch for the legacy of spiritual jazz. Rising to prominence in Coltrane's final years, Sanders' howling tenor spearheaded a new wave of Pan-African expression throughout the 70s, guiding colourful ensembles in collective outpour as a preacher would prayer.

Pharoah's subsequent decades saw a gradual continuation of this search, ever-refining his voice with a range of esoteric collaborations across the worlds of jazz and African music. Renewed interest in this era amongst the bubbling UK improv scene has brought Sanders influence to the forefront, giving Promises the visibility his albums have long deserved.

Billed as Pharoah's first foray into the world of electronic music, Promises is the brainchild of Sam Shepherd aka Floating Points. A dedicated record collector, producer, and DJ, Shepherd's respect for this music is evident through its structure alone: a single forty-minute suite divided into nine 'movements' for consumption. The classical presentation is backed by the London Symphony Orchestra, playing Sam's compositional accents atop his synthesiser soundscapes. It's a sonically sparse affair that puts Sanders center stage, entering each movement on his own terms and playing from the heart.

It's no exaggeration to say every note Pharoah plays is breathtaking, Promises is a portrait of a lifelong improviser framed by respect and gravitas. There's a wisdom to each phrase, be it hummed, sung, or screeched, that places just emphasis on Sanders' every audiation. It's worth remarking on the immaculate production that enables this acoustic voyeurism, suspending sax lines between a humming, synthetic bed and recurring orchestral textures. In this way, Promises is far more classically-minded than the electronic excursions of Floating Points. Shepherd's synthesiser acts almost as a conduction tool , suggesting harmonics through drone or arpeggio instead of outright stating them.

The synth-sax interaction is rewarding throughout, scanning not as meandering but deeply explorative ambient work. Promises succeeds in that aspect, but seems to collide with its own ambitions on the orchestral front. Given its presentation as a singular piece, Sam has chosen to link each movement with a seven-note leitmotif, led by harpsichord but gradually embellished. This repeats every ten seconds or so for around half the album's runtime, ducking in and out but shackling the improvisations to a consistent theme.

Movement 7 sees Shepherd's twinkling digital melodies whirr to life whilst Pharoah vigorously taps the keys of his horn, fingering unplayed melodies in enraptured tension. When Sanders finally screeches into action, he's met by the exact same motif we've heard for the last thirty minutes, pulling the equivalent of a Charlie Brown airball on the possibilities of his solo. It's made Promises quite a point of frustration for me, and I'm left wondering if this album even needed an orchestra at all.

It'd be bare, sure, but in complete alignment with Sam's philosophy of presenting Pharoah as is. Compositionally light Promises may be, but its melodic cycles disrupt the space between Pharoah's notes without recurring often enough to extrapolate upon. I've all the respect in the world for Shepherd's ambitions, but a 'less is more' attitude doesn't call for the Symphony Orchestra.

This isn't to say Promises 'fails' in any sense, it just underwhelms as the album experience it so desperately wants to be. There are plenty of stunning moments that will no doubt strike a chord with fans and newcomers alike. It's never the job of late-career artists to recreate their earlier work, and Floating Points is to be commended for seeing the project through. Personally, I can't wait to hear what else Pharoah has to say.

- Boddhi Farmer.
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3149089081/size=large/bgcol=f…; seamless><a href="https://floatingpoints.bandcamp.com/album/promises">Promises by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra</a></iframe>