Floating Points

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Floating Points is the stage name of Samuel Thomas Shepherd, a British producer, DJ and musician, born in 1986 and raised in Manchester. He studied piano at Chetham's School of Music and then completed a doctorate at University College London in neuroscience and epigenetics, with research into pain responses. In the late 2000s he DJed at the London club Plastic People. In 2008 he started the label Eglo Records with Alexander Nut, and in 2015 he founded Pluto Records himself.

Music and breakthrough

His first release was the Vacuum EP in 2008. In 2010 he played live with a sixteen-piece group, the Floating Points Ensemble, which received an award for best BBC Radio 1 Maida Vale Session. His first album, Elaenia, was released on 6 November 2015 and received mostly glowing reviews. Crush followed in 2019, Promises in 2020 and Cascade in 2024. In 2017 he toured with The xx and made Reflections: Mojave Desert. He remixed Thundercat, Caribou and Basement Jaxx, among others.

Influence

His music combines electronic dance music with jazz, classical and ambient. He names Claude Debussy, Olivier Messiaen and Bill Evans as influences. On Promises he collaborated with the saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra. In this way he belongs to the producers who enriched electronic music with acoustic instruments and a broad musical education.

Listening

• 
  Movement 1 · Floating Points, 2021

Discography

Studio albums

• 2015Elaenia
• 2019Crush
• 2020Promises
• 2024Cascade
• 2025Lazarus (Adult Swim Original Series Soundtrack) (soundtrack)
• 2026Mere Mortals