Floating Points, the project of UK artist Sam Shepherd has announced his new LP Cascade will arrive on September 13th via Ninja Tune. Today, Shepherd has shared album track “Key103” accompanied by visualizer with Tokyo-based artist Akiko Nakayama. Promises, Floating Points’ previous record, released in 2021, had seen him swap the sounds of his modular synth and intricate drum patterns for airy dreamscapes, crafted with late legendary saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Creating the album stripped Shepherd back. Not only in terms of his set-up – “I have a studio at home with all the gear I usually use, but I wasn’t there so I had to use my laptop, doing it all on headphones”, he says – but in terms of his connection to electronic music, and to his home city where his love of music first flourished. “There’s something about Manchester that keeps coming back to me, and I think it’s partly to do with its record shops”, says the producer, who found himself instinctively naming tracks after local landmarks and institutions. “As a kid, my school was around the corner from the Northern Quarter so at lunchtimes, I’d run out of the school gates and skip lunch altogether to go and listen to records. I’m sure I was a total pain in the arse constantly pulling records off the shelves”, he laughs, “but it was amazing. I’d be listening to Autechre at Pelican Neck, Dilla at Fat City, David Morales mixes at the Factory Records shop… It gave me a parallel education in music to what I was being taught at school”. This can be found in multiple tracks on the album including lead single ‘Key103’ – named after “an underground Manchester radio station I’d listen to religiously” that helped expand his music sensibilities beyond the classical composers he focused on in his academic work (Shepherd studied composition at Chetham’s School of Music).

Other tracks took inspiration from the dust bowl surroundings off the Californian desert, but make no mistake: Cascade is a record forged in an adolescence spent in Manchester, discovering the mind-expanding (and emotion-purging) power of electronic music in all its forms. Though devised as a continuation of Crush, Cascade nonetheless pushes Floating Points’ sound forward into new places. The nine songs here are allowed to smoulder and spark for up to eight minutes at a time, allowing for more expansive exploration of sounds and grooves than before. Almost a decade on since Elaenia, his revered debut album, the composer has discovered ways to thread his experiments outside of club music seamlessly into his music designed for the dancefloor. “I’m just constantly chasing challenges”, says Shepherd, explaining how this album fits into his ever-expanding web of creative projects, of which there are many. “I always want to keep things moving and go all in on things that excite me. Whether that’s working with a 100-piece orchestra on a ballet or on a laptop on my own”, Shepherd grins. Cascade is the proof – when it comes to electronic innovation and simmering tracks that stand hairs on end, Floating Points will always, always have unfinished business.

Floating Points will be playing a number of dates throughout the summer including playing at London’s All Points East, We Out Here Festival, Lost Village Festival and Forwards Festival. He has also today announced that he is bringing his live show to Europe with headline dates in November. All dates include long-time collaborators Hamill Industries working alongside Akiko Nakayama delivering visuals at each show.

Floating Points
Cascade
tracklist
Ninja Tune

1. Vocoder (Club Mix)
2. Key103
3. Birth4000
4. Del Oro
5. Fast Forward
6. Ocotillo
7. Afflecks Palace
8. Tilt Shift
9. Ablaze

Floating Points2024 Tour dates:

12 Jul – Lisbon, PT @ NOS Alive
13 Jul – Bilbao, ES @ BBK
20 Jul – Istanbul, TR – Babylon Soundgarden Festival (DJ)
26 Jul – Niigata, JP @ Fuji Rock Festival
3 Aug – Waterford, IE @ All Together Now
16 Aug – Wimborne @ We Out Here Festival
23 Aug – London @ All Points East
24 Aug – Lincoln @ Lost Village Festival
31 Aug – Bristol @ Forwards Festival
20 Sep – Philadelphia, PA @ Making Time (DJ)
21 Sep – Los Angeles, CA @ Boiler Room (DJ)
28 Sep – Chicago, IL @ Warm Love Cool Dreams (DJ)
29 Sep – San Francisco, CA @ Portola Festival (DJ)
5 Oct – Arcosanti, AZ @ Form (DJ)
16 Oct – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
16 Nov – Paris, FR @ Le CENTQUATRE-PARIS
28 Nov – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg (1900-2300)
29 Nov – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg (2330-0400)

Order tickets for Floating Points HERE
Pre-order Cascade HERE