Floating Points Returns to Orchestral Scale on “Falling To Earth”

Floating Points is back in long-form mode, and if you loved the scale and patience of Promises, this one is worth your full attention. Sam Shepherd’s new 13-minute piece, Falling To Earth, links him with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra for a tense, constantly shifting composition that sits between orchestral writing and electronic pressure.

Even without the late Pharoah Sanders in the picture, the DNA is familiar: sustained ambition, careful pacing, and a refusal to rush payoff. Shepherd has explored plenty of lanes across his career, but his 2021 collaboration with Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra remains a high-water mark for many listeners. So whenever he moves back toward that kind of large-format orchestral space, fans are going to pay attention.

Falling To Earth comes from his score for Mere Mortals, the San Francisco Ballet production that premiered in January 2024. The ballet began a new San Francisco run last month, with Floating Points performing live during the shows, and that run wraps this Sunday. The production is then set to travel to London and Edinburgh later this summer.

As a standalone listen, the track feels restless in the best way. **Strings and percussion keep circling each other** while electronic textures tighten the mood, creating a sense of pursuit that never fully settles. It arrives after his recent single Corner Of My Eye and his run of collaborations with Fred again.. and Caribou, extending a period where Shepherd keeps moving between club energy and cinematic composition without flattening either side.