Sam Shepherd (aka
Floating Points) gets top billing for having composed this 46-minute suite. The keyboardist and electronic music producer met with tenor sax demigod
Pharoah Sanders in 2019, and completed the recording in 2020 with the violins, violas, cellos, and double basses of
the London Symphony Orchestra. This cross-generational collaboration is more natural than it might seem; some of
Shepherd's previous electric piano work has evinced an appreciation for the tranquility and restraint in
Lonnie Liston Smith's use of the Fender Rhodes, heard first on
Sanders'
Thembi. To
Shepherd's credit, his framework for
Sanders is in the moment. There's no evident intent to evoke any point in the saxophonist's past, or even in maintaining continuity with the
Floating Points catalog. Moreover, this is a fulfilling listen for those who hoped to hear more from
Sanders the sideman on the 2019 and 2020 LPs led by
Joey DeFrancesco and
Bill Laswell. In the main,
Sanders' playing is soft and lyrical, not so much searching as observing, like he's strolling down a densely wooded path with
Shepherd's recurrent arpeggio flickering like sunlight through gaps in trees. (That motif is deployed with such frequency that it can be a distraction.) There's a gradual ebb and flow through the first four movements, the last of which is enhanced by
Sanders' friendly vocal trills. His saxophone then becomes more active and clustered, yet tightly controlled, and early into the sixth movement yields to a mass of strings signifying a looming threat that dissipates before turning violent, seemingly cradled into silence. Up springs the arpeggio and
Sanders' saxophone, placid until invigorated by swirling electronics.
Sanders emits piquant beams, never quite blasts, and fades out by the end of the seventh movement. Droning organs and violins that whisk and wrench are centered in the two final movements, finishing the suite with a sense of uncertainty. The trip is well worth completing despite
Sanders' early exit. ~ Andy Kellman