Aug 28 2025
5
Loved it, thank you!!
Promises
Floating Points
Pharoah Sanders
London Symphony Orchestra
2021
Album Summary
This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.
Promises is a 2021 studio album by the British electronic musician Floating Points, the American jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra. It was released on 26 March 2021 through the New York label Luaka Bop. It consists of a single 46-minute composition noted for its "dreamlike" quality. The album has received acclaim from music critics, and was shortlisted for the 2021 Mercury Prize. Promises was the final album Sanders released before his death in 2022. Promises has been called an ambient record, and noted for its "dreamlike" quality. The album consists of a single musical composition written by Sam Shepherd, divided into nine movements. The piece begins with its central motif: a short pattern of notes played by Shepherd on synthesiser, piano and harpsichord. The motif is repeated throughout the piece in variations. It is compounded with a sparse backdrop of synthetic arrangements from Shepherd, particularly synthesiser. The background is also populated by Sanders's atmospheric tenor saxophone passages, which vary in intensity and are positioned sparingly throughout. In the fourth movement, Sanders uses his voice to vocalize wordless passages. Sanders's saxophone concludes its presence at the end of the seventh movement.
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Aug 29 2025
5
Absolutely beautiful
Aug 31 2025
5
When the review said dreamlike they weren’t kidding. Lovely and interesting.
Sep 02 2025
5
This album came out in the throws of the COVID-19 lockdown. When everything was so heavy I decided to buy a new turntable and around the same time I bought this record. It was everything I needed at the time. And it still is.
Aug 29 2025
4
Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Movement 1
Aug 30 2025
4
Real nice
Sep 01 2025
4
I've finally cracked the code of what makes a good Ambient album. Usually with a bad Ambient record, I'd open Spotify and see that I'm still on song 2 after like 24 millennia. This time, I opened Spotify thinking I'm on song 2 and saw that the album was ending in like 3 minutes. Flows like a river. You love to see it. Also nice to see some better jazz representation. Still can't believe we only had 1 John Coltrane album, 1 Mingus and no Pharoah Sanders on the original list.
Sep 04 2025
4
Music nerd jazz + electronic collab to play early morning with coffee or late night with a wine and enjoy for the #vibes
Aug 28 2025
3
Although there is a heap of talent far surpassing my puny mind behind this I'm honestly not sure there is all that much there. Maybe I'm not refined enough for it, maybe it required more dedicated and active listening. As it was I found it to be just fine.
Aug 30 2025
3
Been wanting to listen to this one. Love floating points. I know movement 3 is good. 3
Sep 01 2025
3
I have to be in the right mood for this, which I was, otherwise I might fall asleep.
Sep 01 2025
3
Perfect music as background in a fancy restaurant or something. Not something I would actively put on again. It sure may be a relaxing moment for some
Sep 02 2025
2
Expected a lot from this LP and left disappointed. Combining the ethereal electronic Floating Points is known for with a full orchestra's magnificence seems like an unmistakable win, but the main theme is so piddling and timid that this quickly becomes 45 minutes of slog. Pharaoh Sanders' excellent sax does its best to inject some liveliness, but then feels foreign atop an ultimately banal melody. The composition here is just not good (at least to my taste), and I'm left wondering what could have been if someone had written a melody that dared to get above a meek whisper.