Floating Points - Elaenia

The story behind the making of ‘Elaenia’ is almost as interesting as the album itself. Sam Shepherd spent five years putting the record together, juggling production with DJing around the world and travelling around the world. Oh, and there was also the small matter of completing a PhD in neuroscience. If that didn’t make you think he’s been a busy man, in that time Shepherd has also been a resident at the celebrated though now-closed Plastic People, and put music out on an array of well-respected labels. Throughout he’s proven himself to be a musician with a very high quality threshold: records like ‘Vacuum’, Shepherd’s breakthrough album, and 2011’s ‘Shadows’ have showcased an inventive producer obsessed with the smaller details.

And it’s the intricate detail on ‘Elaenia’, the debut Floating Points album, which makes you understand why it’s been so time-consuming. It’s all meticulously planned, drawing its inspiration from right around the world and melding the styles together seamlessly. Of course it’s an electronic record but it could just as easily be found in the jazz section of a record store (or, more likely, the genre tagging of iTunes playlists).

Supple and swelling it boasts hints of Four Tet-style majesty (Kieran Hebden is a good friend of his) yet it’s always its own sound, at times gentle and hardly there, before blooming into technicolor life. It’s a headphones record, one with intimate, subtle details.