Floating Points & Pharoah Sanders — Promises | Full Vinyl Session + The Records Around It
Promises — played in full, vinyl, start to finish. One composition in nine movements. The same sounds returns again and again, gradually changing emotional meaning as strings rise, Pharoah Sanders breathes into the space, and silence itself becomes part of the music.
The session opens without words. Between the movements — other records. Not commentary. Music that slows time, widens emotional space, and helps you return gently to the world afterwards.
Total runtime approx. 1.06 hrs.
Thank you for Listening
Rafi Mercer - Founder of Tracks & Tales
TRACKLIST
OPENING
0:00 01 Summer Madness — Kool & The Gang - Light of Worlds (De-Lite, 1974)
Written as the sun — Kool & The Gang built the album around the nine planets. They never told anyone.
PROMISES
4:26 02 Movements 1 & 2 — Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & LSO Promises (Luaka Bop, 2021)
Sanders's saxophone enters 83 seconds in. Before that, only the motif and silence. The person next to you will feel it at exactly the same moment you do.
INTERLUDE
13:18 03 Elaenia — Floating Points - Elaenia (Pluto, 2015)
Pharoah Sanders heard this in 2015 and reached out to Sam Shepherd directly. Six years later they made Promises. This is the record that started everything.
PROMISES
18:08 04 Movements 3 & 4 — Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & LSO - Promises (Luaka Bop, 2021)
Recorded at AIR Studios during the pandemic, musicians socially distanced across staggered sessions. The space on the record is partly the acoustics of an unusually quiet London.
INTERLUDE
21:34 05 Exchange — Massive Attack - Mezzanine (Virgin/Circa, 1998)
The closing track on Mezzanine. Horace Andy: "You see a man's face, but you don't see his heart." After an hour of darkness, the album blinks into sunlight. Here it arrives before the ascent.
PROMISES
24:50 06 Movements 5 & 6 — Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & LSO - Promises (Luaka Bop, 2021)
The summit. Repetition transforms into transcendence. The strings gather until the room feels suspended between meditation and overwhelming beauty.
INTERLUDE
38:00 07 Everything in Its Right Place — Radiohead - Kid A (Parlophone, 2000)
Jonny Greenwood was told not to play guitar. The band used instruments none of them knew how to play. This was the first thing they recorded.
PROMISES
42:07 08 Movements 7 & 8 — Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & LSO - Promises (Luaka Bop, 2021)
Pharoah Sanders died on 24 September 2022. Promises was the last studio album he made. Movement 8 feels less like composition and more like departure.
INTERLUDE
56:50 09 Part of Me — Nite Jewel - Real High (Secretly Canadian, 2012)
The quietest moment in the session. A human voice in a small electronic space, not reaching for anything. Let it be quiet.
PROMISE
1:00:00 10 Movement 9 — Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & LSO - Promises (Luaka Bop, 2021)
The final movement does not feel like conclusion. It feels like acceptance. The motif no longer asks questions. It simply exists.
CLOSE
1:01:44 11 Try — The xx - Coexist (Young Turks, 2012)
You leave a listening room and hear the city differently afterwards. If the session has worked, this is where that begins.
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All music is the property of its respective rights holders. This session is intended for educational and editorial listening purposes. No commercial use is made of any recording. If you are a rights holder and have a concern, please contact us directly before filing a claim.
FAQs
Why is the album played in full, with no skipping between movements?
Promises was composed as a single continuous arc — nine movements built from one recurring motif. Hearing it complete, in sequence, is what allows the emotional transformation to register; broken apart, it becomes nine fragments rather than one statement.
What is the purpose of the interludes between movements?
They aren't commentary or filler. Each interlude widens the emotional space the previous movement opened, then prepares the room for what comes next — a kind of breathing room built into the structure of the session.
Do I need to know the records beforehand to enjoy the session?
No. The session is built for listening, not knowledge. The notes are there if you want context, but the experience works on its own — that's the whole point of doing it in a room, together, in real time.
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