Samuel Shepherd (born 1986), known professionally as Floating Points, is a British electronic music producer, DJ, and musician. He is the founder of Pluto Records, co-founder of Eglo Records and leader of a 16-piece group called Floating Points Ensemble. He took over the 6 Music Artist in Residence radio slot on July 15, 2024.

Biography

Raised in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England, Shepherd studied piano at Chetham's School of Music before receiving a Ph.D. in

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

and

epigenetics In biology, epigenetics is the study of changes in gene expression that happen without changes to the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix ''epi-'' (ἐπι- "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are "on top of" or "in ...

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. His Ph.D. research focused on pain responses and the aberrant expression of RNAs in neurons, and included academic publications in neuroscience. He also worked as a DJ at Plastic People, a London club, in the late 2000s. In late 2008, Shepherd and Alexander Nut launched the Eglo record label. Eglo Records had released music by Floating Points, Fatima, Funkineven, Steve Spacek, Dego & Kaidi, Shafiq Husayn, K15, Mizz Beats, Natalie Slade, Destiny71z, Shy One, Henry Wu, Chunky and others. In 2010, Shepherd performed with a 16-piece live incarnation of Floating Points, entitled the Floating Points Ensemble. The group won an award for "Best

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

Maida Vale Session". In 2015, Shepherd founded Pluto records. He released projects such as Eleania, Kuiper,

Crush Crush may refer to: * Infatuation or limerence, the romantic attraction to another person * Puppy love, feelings of love, romance, or infatuation felt by young people Crush may also refer to: Film * Crush (1972 film), ''Crush'' (1972 film), a H ...

, and Reflections: Mojave Desert from the label. Shepherd's musical influences include

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...

, and

Bill Evans William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, block chords, innovative chord voicings, a ...

. He began releasing work under the Floating Points moniker in 2008, and in 2017 toured with

The xx The xx are an English indie rock band from Wandsworth, London, formed in 2005. The band consists of Romy Madley Croft (guitar, vocals), Oliver Sim (bass guitar, vocals), Jamie Smith, also known as Jamie xx (beats, MPC, record production), ...

. He has also remixed musicians such as Thundercat,

Caribou The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only represe ...

, Basement Jaxx,

Skepta Joseph Olaitan Adenuga Jr. (born 19 September 1982), known professionally as Skepta, is a British grime MC, rapper, record producer and DJ. Alongside his younger brother Jme, he briefly joined Roll Deep before they became founding members of ...

Headie One Irving Ampofo Adjei (born 6 October 1994), known professionally as Headie One (formerly Headz), is a British rapper and singer. In 2018 he released his second solo mixtape, titled ''The One'', which included the single "Know Better" featuring ...

Career

Shepherd's first release was the ''Vacuum EP'' in 2008 on Eglo Records. Over the next few years, he would continuously release EPs and singles on Eglo, but also other labels such as Planet Mu. Notable releases included 2011's ''Shadows EP'' and 2014's "''King Bromeliad''" / "''Montparnasse''". On 6 November 2015, Shepherd released the first Floating Points album, ''Elaenia''. Around its release, Shepherd launched an 11-piece live show and immediately sold out a string of global live dates including headline shows at Islington Assembly Hall and two dates at Electric Brixton in London. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''Elaenia'' received an average score of 85, based on 20 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Hamill Industries and Floating Points created the exhibition ‘Future Shocks’ at 180, The Strand in London in collaboration with FACT. The exhibition featured an installation by Hamill called "Vortex". In 2017, Shepherd released ''Reflections: Mojave Desert''. The album recording was accompanied by a short film produced by long-time collaborator Anna Diaz Ortuño of Hamill Industries. The album was recorded in August 2016 in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

when Shepherd and his band were rehearsing for their upcoming US tour. Floating Points explained: "Whilst we were out playing and exploring the area around us—the sound reflecting from the rocks, the sound of the wind between them, complete stillness at night and packs of roaming coyotes in the distance—it became apparent that we could use this as its own unique recording environment." On 29 March 2019, Shepherd contributed a DJ mix to the Late Night Tales series. On 18 October 2019, Shepherd released the album ''Crush''. It received positive reception upon release. At

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from music publications, the album received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 81 based on 16 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Shepherd embarked on a tour following the album's release, selling out shows at Printworks, Elysee Montmartre, and Funkhaus. During lockdown, Shepherd collaborated with KDV Dance Ensemble and Boiler Room to host an interactive live stream on Zoom. He was interviewed by the New York Times. On 26 March 2021, Shepherd released a collaborative album with

Pharoah Sanders Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", San ...

and the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

, entitled Promises. It was nominated for the

Mercury Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual Music award, music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the Music of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom or Music of Ireland, Ireland. It was cre ...

2021 and reached #6 in the Official UK Albums Chart and #1 in the Official UK Vinyl Albums Chart. The album was released on New York label Luaka Bop. Sanders was impressed by ''Elaenia'' and befriended Shepherd, who was 40 years younger than him. Sanders proposed that they produce a collaborative album. Shepherd composed the music and played both electronic and non-electronic instruments. After Sanders' death in 2022, Shepherd put together a one-time live performance of the album at the Hollywood Bowl, conducted by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson with an ensemble cast including Sam Shepherd,

Kieran Hebden Kieran Miles David Hebden (born September 1977), known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting and critically acc ...

, Dan Snaith, Shabaka Hutchings, Kara Lis Coverdale,

Hinako Omori is a Japanese singer and composer based in London. Early life and education Omori was born in Yokohama, Japan. She moved to London at three years of age. She began playing the piano at five years old, and was first introduced to electronic ...

. The Independent reviewed the performance, calling it "A near perfect body of music paired with a beautiful tribute" and gave it 4/5 stars. In 2022, Shepherd released the singles "Vocoder", "Grammar", "Promises", and "Someone Close". In 2023, Shepherd released "Birth4000". He collaborated as a producer for Japanese American singer-songwriter

Hikaru Utada , also known mononymously as Utada, is a Japanese and American singer, songwriter, and producer. She is considered to be one of the most influential and best-selling musical artists in Japan. She is best known by international audiences for w ...

's album '' Bad Mode'', working on the songs "Bad Mode", "Kibunja Naino (Not In The Mood)" and "Somewhere Near Marseilles". Shepherd composed an original score for Mere Mortals for the

San Francisco Ballet San Francisco Ballet is the oldest ballet company in the United States, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet under the leadership of ballet master Adolph Bolm. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Fra ...

which premiered on 26 January 2024. The ballet, featuring choreography from Aszure Barton, contextualised the ancient parable of Pandora's box in AI. Shepherd worked with long-time creative collaborators Hamill Industries. The initial run of shows sold out. A second run was planned for April 2024. Shepherd, along with Kamasi Washington and

Bonobo The bonobo (; ''Pan paniscus''), also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee (less often the dwarf chimpanzee or gracile chimpanzee), is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus ''Pan (genus), Pan'' (the other bei ...

, composed music for the 2025 Japanese anime television series '' Lazarus'', directed by Shinichirō Watanabe.

Discography

Studio albums

*'' Elaenia'' (2015) *''Reflections – Mojave Desert'' (2017) *''

'' (2019) *'' Promises'' (with

& the

) (2021) *''

Cascade Cascade, or Cascading may refer to: Science and technology Science * Air shower (physics), a cascade (particle shower) of subatomic particles and ionized nuclei ** Particle shower, a cascade of secondary particles produced as the result of a high ...

'' (2024)

Compilation albums

*'' Late Night Tales: Floating Points'' (2019)

EPs

*''Vacuum EP'' (2009) *''Shadows EP'' (2011) *''Kuiper'' (2016) *''Lazarus'' (2025)

Singles

*"J&W Beat" (2009) *"Love Me Like This" (2009) *"For You" (2009) *"People's Potential" / "Shark Chase" (2010) *"Post Suite" / "Almost in Profile" (2010) (as Floating Points Ensemble) *"Sais (Dub)" (2011) *"Marilyn" (2011) *"Danger" (2011) *"Wires" (2013) *"King Bromeliad" / "Montparnasse" (2014) *"Sparkling Controversy" (2014) *"Nuits Sonores" / "Nectarines" (2014) *"Kuiper" (2016) *"For Marmish Part II" (2016) *"Silurian Blue" (2017) *"Ratio" (2017) *"LesAlpx" (2019) *"Last Bloom" (2019) *"Anasickmodular" (2019) *"Bias" (2020) *"Vocoder" (2022) *"Grammar" (2022) *"Problems" (2022) *"Someone Close" (2022) *"Birth4000" (2023) *"Del Oro" (2024) *"Key103" (2024) *"Ocotillo" (2024) *"Dexion" (2025)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Floating Points 1986 births Living people English electronic musicians English experimental musicians Luaka Bop artists Musicians from Manchester Ninja Tune artists