Floating Points: Mere Mortals (2LP) [DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON]

Why you'll love it

A 2LP set with an etched fourth side. Sam Shepherd, the producer behind Promises with Pharoah Sanders, wrote the score for a ballet commissioned by the San Francisco Ballet, and it tells the story of Prometheus and Pandora in fourteen movements.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Etched side D
• 14 tracks

About the album

Sam Shepherd has always been an unusual sort of dance music producer: a Chetham's-trained pianist from Manchester with a Ph.D. in neuroscience, who founded Pluto Records and co-founded Eglo, and who made the much-loved Promises with Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra. Mere Mortals is his first ballet score, written for the San Francisco Ballet and out on Deutsche Grammophon.

It follows the old myths in order, from "Fire" and "Rage Of The Gods" through "Pandora's Creation" and "Opening Of The Jar" to "Hope Taking Flight" and "Nowhere To Land," mixing his electronics with orchestral colour. It works perfectly well without dancers, though we take no responsibility for what happens if you try the lifts in the living room.

Tracklist

Listen

Out August 28, 2026 on Deutsche Grammophon (cat# 4867283).