March 26, 2021 - Luka Bop
To us who consume music, genre lines can be divisive, cultural signifiers to the world at large about who we are and what we value. Like clothes we wear when we walk outside, our musical taste protects us and helps us find others who have traits in common with us. Those hard lines we draw make socializing simpler by distilling our complexity into bite-sized chunks that are easier to make sense of and organize. Many come to music for both the attraction to the sound but also with the intent of cultivating an identity.
Be careful of hanging your identity on Promises, though, because it is a single 46-minute piece in nine movements that challenges all notions of simplicity when it comes to musical boundary edges. Promises is a collaboration among three behemoths that occupy three separate spaces in the music industry, each prolific in their own right, each with expansive coverage in their own area of expertise—British experimental electronic producer Floating Points aka Sam Shepherd, American jazz saxophone legend Pharoah Sanders and The London Symphony Orchestra. Like red, green and blue, they come together to create a pure white light that sparkles suspended in space like the first star that appears after the sun sets on the horizon. Listening, captivated by the meditative experience of falling into this piece, I was and am still left wondering—obsessing over the question really—how did they do this? Who reacted to whom and when? What came first? And what brought these three entities together? What knew of the greatness that would ensue?
Promises is a meditative experience from start to finish, and like a good spiritual guide, it introduces us slowly to its atmosphere before cutting whatever tethers we have to the terrestrial plane. That theme is explored throughout with great tenacity, every square inch is investigated, different light spectrums are shone into dark corners, ideas are turned upside down to see if their logic stil floats from that perspective. There are no lyrics, but there is a soft humming at times. Sanders’ saxophone is prominent throughout and sultry like gravel and surrounded by cool energetic waters. Tumbling and whirling instrumental interludes emerge and then sink back while others churn up to the surface to see how it feels to swim beside Sanders’ phrases. To see how they look when they float. To see what they are. Sanders in a trance-like stream-of-consciousness riffs then recontextualizes riffs and sentences while the orchestra reacts. It is the best example of music as effective communicative mode I’ve heard in a long time. The melodies are unlike anything ever heard before but familiar enough to follow and understand what they are expressing.
Unlike some experimental music projects, you don’t have to concentrate to become engaged with Promises. It will captivate even the most skeptical music consumer, no matter what genre they wear. This is a diamond, after all. And somehow, it is breathing your air. With one look, it is hard to look away. Beautiful, ethereal, and transcendentally attractive in a primal sense, even if you fall out of the piece for a moment or two, you will always find your way back in without trying. Whispering to you in the dark, it lays a path as organic as it can be, an offering of a gentle, quiet unwavering support. You are always welcome and you are always forgiven. ☔