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Floating Points: Mere Mortals, Sam Shepherd’s first full-length ballet score

With Mere Mortals, Floating Points, the musical alter ego of British composer, producer and DJ Sam Shepherd, presents his first full-length ballet score. The fourteen-part album was released in all formats on 28 August 2026 on <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en">Deutsche Grammophon</a>. The work grew out of a commission from Tamara Rojo, artistic director of San Francisco Ballet, who also staged the production.
The choreography is by Aszure Barton, with set design and visuals by Hamill Industries. Mere Mortals received its premiere in January 2024 at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco.
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<h2>Mere Mortals: Floating Points sets the myth of Pandora to music</h2>
At its heart lies the ancient tale of Pandora, the first woman of Greek mythology, whose curiosity brought humankind both ruin and hope in equal measure. Shepherd translates this material into an interplay of elegiac strings, urgent brass and pulsing electronics.
Recorded with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, acoustic forces and synthetic textures merge into a single, irresistible pull. The title itself points straight to the core of the work: Mere Mortals explores the boundary between human and machine, between the transient and the constructed.
<h2>&nbsp;</h2>
<h2>The album: fourteen movements between orchestra and electronics</h2>
The score follows the arc of the myth across fourteen movements, from Fire and Hope through the percussive uproar of Rage of the Gods to the open close of Nowhere to Land. Solo moments set fine accents along the way: the lyrical solo violin of Cordula Merks in Hope, the delicate harp of Miriam Adefris in Her Gift, before the eerie mood of Opening of the Jar lifts the lid of the proverbial vessel. The singles Falling to Earth and Her Gift were already released ahead of the album, first glimpses of a sound world that challenges listeners as much as it seduces them.
<h2>&nbsp;</h2>
<h2>Floating Points, aka Sam Shepherd: from the club to the concert hall</h2>
Sam Shepherd is a musician of many worlds: classically trained, once a chorister at Manchester Cathedral and a pupil at the renowned Chetham's School of Music, later celebrated as Floating Points on stages across the international club scene. His albums include Elaenia, Crush and the Mercury Prize-nominated Promises, recorded with jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra. Mere Mortals now marks his debut on the Yellow Label and the most ambitious step in his output to date.
<h2>&nbsp;</h2>
<h2>Mere Mortals on vinyl, CD and in Dolby Atmos</h2>
For collectors, the DG Store offers a Deluxe Edition on crystal-clear vinyl (2LP), with etched details, a removable outer sleeve, and an expanded booklet featuring a handwritten score by the artist. Alongside this, Mere Mortals is available as a standard 2LP, as a CD, and digitally, including in Dolby Atmos for an immersive listening experience. At the same time, the ballet returns to the stage: following its European premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival (28 to 30 August 2026, with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra), the production runs from 9 to 12 September 2026 at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London (with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia).
Between antiquity and the future, between orchestra and synthesizer: Mere Mortals by Floating Points has been available since 28 August 2026 on Deutsche Grammophon.
➤ Order now at the DG Store and secure the Deluxe Vinyl Edition, or discover more new releases in the <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue">catalogue</a>.

Floating Points Shares New Mere Mortals Track Pandora’s Creation

Mere Mortals&nbsp;will be released in all formats on 28 August 2026
Pandora&rsquo;s Creation will be shared online on 24 July&nbsp; 
Floating Points&nbsp;today unveils&nbsp;Pandora&rsquo;s Creation, the second track from his forthcoming Deutsche Grammophon album&nbsp;Mere Mortals. Following the release of&nbsp;Her Gift, the new single offers another compelling glimpse into Sam Shepherd&rsquo;s genre-defying score, where orchestral writing and electronic sound worlds merge into a rich and immersive musical experience.
Floating Points&rsquo;&nbsp;Mere Mortals&nbsp;will be released on&nbsp;28 August 2026. Recorded with the&nbsp;San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, the 14-track album captures Shepherd&rsquo;s first full-length ballet score, originally commissioned by San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director Tamara Rojo. Reimagining the myth of Pandora through a contemporary lens, the work explores themes of curiosity, transformation and humanity&rsquo;s relationship with technology and the natural world.
Reflecting on the project, Shepherd explains: &ldquo;Pandora&rsquo;s not about bringing hell to Earth. She really represents curiosity and change.&rdquo; This fresh interpretation shapes a score that moves seamlessly between lyrical orchestral passages, powerful brass writing and pulsating electronics, creating a musical narrative that is as compelling on record as it is on stage.
Floating Points will appear live in the European premiere of&nbsp;Mere Mortals&nbsp;with San Francisco Ballet at the 2026&nbsp;Edinburgh International Festival&nbsp;(28 August, with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; further performances 29 &amp; 30 August), and when the work transfers to&nbsp;Sadler&rsquo;s Wells Theatre in London (9-12 September, with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia).

Floating Points Disrupts with New Album Mere Mortals,  an Electrifying Reimagining of Pandora’s Myth 

One of Britain&rsquo;s most respected sonic innovators has composed a thrilling score for a futuristic retelling of the myth of Pandora
Like the live version, the recording is produced by Floating Points, who also performs alongside the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra 
Mere Mortals will be released in all formats on 28 August 2026
Her Gift will be shared online on 5 June&nbsp;
&ldquo;The score, [Shepherd&rsquo;s] first for ballet, is a thing of sonic wonder &hellip; It&rsquo;s an absolute aural roller coaster&rdquo;
San Francisco Chronicle
Composer-producer-musician-DJ Floating Points, aka Sam Shepherd, is an artist of genre-defying versatility. Classically trained, revered on the international club scene, and with a Mercury Prize-shortlisted jazz album to his name, in January 2024 he played synths alongside the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra as the company gave the world premiere of his first full-length ballet score, Mere Mortals. Commissioned and directed by the San Francisco Ballet&rsquo;s Artistic Director Tamara Rojo, with choreography by Aszure Barton and design and visuals by Hamill Industries, the ballet reimagines the story of Pandora in a fusion of myth, music and movement. 
Together with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, Floating Points has now recorded his Mere Mortals score for Deutsche Grammophon. A potent mix of elegiac strings, apocalyptic brass and pulsing electronics, the 14-track album will be released in all formats on 28&nbsp;August 2026. A standalone extended single, Falling to Earth, is already available online, and taster tracks from the album will be shared in the months to come, starting with Her Gift on 5&nbsp;June. 
&ldquo;Her Gift is a duet written for harp and Therevox ET 4.3.,&rdquo; explains Shepherd, &ldquo;a dance between Epimetheus and Pandora: he is falling in love with her. Prometheus appears at the very end to warn his brother off his pursuit. The harpist on the recording is the incredibly talented Miriam Adefris, who performed with me on my last tour and taught me how to write for the harp.&rdquo;
Sam Shepherd grew up immersed in music. A chorister at Manchester Cathedral, he studied piano and composition in his teens at Chetham&rsquo;s School of Music and often attended concerts with his father. On one occasion he saw Rosas perform Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker&rsquo;s work Rain to Steve Reich&rsquo;s Music for 18 Musicians at the Manchester MEN Arena: &ldquo;I had never really seen dance before and it was just phenomenal.&rdquo;
Years later, Shepherd met Tamara Rojo, incoming director of San Francisco Ballet. By this time he had achieved fame as the experimental, eclectic DJ and producer Floating Points, with a string of hit tracks and the acclaimed albums Elaenia, Crush and Promises (with jazz icon Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra). Rojo asked if he might consider composing a short piece for her new company. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d never even considered writing a ballet before, but I replied, &lsquo;You know, I think I&rsquo;d want to do a whole show.&rsquo; And that&rsquo;s how it happened!&rdquo;
He explored various ideas, including a ballet based on the work of the Manhattan Project &ndash; the secret World War Two programme that developed the first atomic bombs. His partner, dancer and choreographer Hannah Ekholm, noted the parallels with Pandora&rsquo;s inadvertent unleashing of evil into the world, and this captured Shepherd&rsquo;s imagination: &ldquo;Every day there&rsquo;s a new Pandora, right? A new can of worms being opened.&rdquo; Inspired by classicist-author-broadcaster Natalie Haynes, he also looked into the way misogyny had woven its way into the myth. &ldquo;The translations [of Pandora&rsquo;s story] robbed her of her agency, whilst describing her as being &lsquo;gifted&rsquo; rather than the more accurate &lsquo;giving&rsquo;. Pandora&rsquo;s not about bringing hell to Earth. She really represents curiosity and change.&rdquo;
The resulting Mere Mortals score is rich in texture and effect, and captivating even without the choreography and visuals of a staged performance. The lyrical solo violin in Hope (Cordula Merks) contrasts starkly with the dissonance and pummelling percussion of Rage of the Gods, for example, while the exquisite harp melody in Her Gift offers a moment&rsquo;s reflection before the eeriness of Opening of the Jar augurs disaster. 
As the SFBO&rsquo;s Music Director and Principal Conductor Martin West notes: &ldquo;The orchestral music emerges from an electronic haze &ndash; not in contrast to it, but as if growing organically out of the same material [and thus mirroring] the ballet&rsquo;s central question: where does the human end and the machine begin?&rdquo; He praises the score as &ldquo;unmistakably of this moment, yet rooted in the formal discipline that makes great ballet music great. There are themes that develop, textures that breathe, and silences that speak.&rdquo;
The ballet imagines a new ending to the myth, referencing climate crisis &ndash; Hope, in the shape of a bird, flies free from Pandora&rsquo;s jar but can only circle a planet reduced to ash. &ldquo;My favourite part of the whole process was writing Nowhere to land,&rdquo; says Shepherd. &ldquo;When I heard the music I&rsquo;d written on the page transformed by Cordula&rsquo;s exquisite violin-playing it made me excited to write more in the future!&rdquo;
Floating Points will appear live in the European premiere of Mere Mortals at the 2026 Edinburgh International Festival (28&nbsp;August, with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; further performances 29 &amp; 30&nbsp;August), and when the work transfers to Sadler&rsquo;s Wells Theatre in London (9-12&nbsp;September, with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia).

One of Britain&rsquo;s most respected sonic innovators has composed a thrilling score for a futuristic retelling of the myth of Pandora
Like the live version, the recording is produced by Floating Points, who also performs alongside the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra
Mere Mortals&nbsp;will be released in all formats on 28 August 2026
Her Gift&nbsp;will be shared online on 5&nbsp;June&nbsp;
&ldquo;The score, [Shepherd&rsquo;s] first for ballet, is a thing of sonic wonder &hellip; It&rsquo;s an absolute aural roller coaster&rdquo;
San Francisco Chronicle
Composer-producer-musician-DJ&nbsp;Floating Points,&nbsp;aka Sam Shepherd, is an artist of genre-defying versatility. Classically trained, revered on the international club scene, and with a Mercury Prize-shortlisted jazz album to his name, in January 2024 he played synths alongside the&nbsp;San&nbsp;Francisco Ballet Orchestra&nbsp;as the company gave the world premiere of his first full-length ballet score,&nbsp;Mere Mortals. Commissioned and directed by the&nbsp;San Francisco Ballet&rsquo;s&nbsp;Artistic Director Tamara Rojo, with choreography by&nbsp;Aszure Barton&nbsp;and design and visuals by&nbsp;Hamill Industries, the ballet reimagines the story of Pandora in a fusion of myth, music and movement.
Together with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, Floating Points has now recorded his&nbsp;Mere Mortals&nbsp;score for&nbsp;Deutsche Grammophon. A potent mix of elegiac strings, apocalyptic brass and pulsing electronics, the 14-track album will be released in all formats on&nbsp;28&nbsp;August 2026. A standalone extended single,&nbsp;Falling to Earth, is already available online, and taster tracks from the album will be shared in the months to come, starting with&nbsp;Her Gift&nbsp;on&nbsp;5&nbsp;June.
&ldquo;Her Gift&nbsp;is a duet written for harp and Therevox ET 4.3.,&rdquo; explains Shepherd, &ldquo;a dance between Epimetheus and Pandora: he is falling in love with her. Prometheus appears at the very end to warn his brother off his pursuit. The harpist on the recording is the incredibly talented&nbsp;Miriam Adefris, who performed with me on my last tour and taught me how to write for the harp.&rdquo;
Sam Shepherd grew up immersed in music. A chorister at Manchester Cathedral, he studied piano and composition in his teens at Chetham&rsquo;s School of Music and often attended concerts with his father. On one occasion he saw Rosas perform Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker&rsquo;s work&nbsp;Rain&nbsp;to Steve Reich&rsquo;s&nbsp;Music for 18 Musicians&nbsp;at the Manchester MEN Arena: &ldquo;I had never really seen dance before and it was just phenomenal.&rdquo;
Years later, Shepherd met Tamara Rojo, incoming director of San Francisco Ballet. By this time he had achieved fame as the experimental, eclectic DJ and producer Floating Points, with a string of hit tracks and the acclaimed albums&nbsp;Elaenia,&nbsp;Crush&nbsp;and&nbsp;Promises&nbsp;(with jazz icon Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra). Rojo asked if he might consider composing a short piece for her new company. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d never even considered writing a ballet before, but I replied, &lsquo;You know, I think I&rsquo;d want to do a whole show.&rsquo; And that&rsquo;s how it happened!&rdquo;
He explored various ideas, including a ballet based on the work of the Manhattan Project &ndash; the secret World War Two programme that developed the first atomic bombs. His partner, dancer and choreographer Hannah Ekholm, noted the parallels with Pandora&rsquo;s inadvertent unleashing of evil into the world, and this captured Shepherd&rsquo;s imagination: &ldquo;Every day there&rsquo;s a new Pandora, right? A new can of worms being opened.&rdquo; Inspired by classicist-author-broadcaster Natalie Haynes, he also looked into the way misogyny had woven its way into the myth. &ldquo;The translations [of Pandora&rsquo;s story] robbed her of her agency, whilst describing her as being &lsquo;gifted&rsquo; rather than the more accurate &lsquo;giving&rsquo;. Pandora&rsquo;s not about bringing hell to Earth. She really represents curiosity and change.&rdquo;
The resulting&nbsp;Mere Mortals&nbsp;score is rich in texture and effect, and captivating even without the choreography and visuals of a staged performance. The lyrical solo violin in&nbsp;Hope&nbsp;(Cordula Merks) contrasts starkly with the dissonance and pummelling percussion of&nbsp;Rage of the Gods, for example, while the exquisite harp melody in&nbsp;Her Gift&nbsp;offers a moment&rsquo;s reflection before the eeriness of&nbsp;Opening of the Jar&nbsp;augurs disaster.
As the SFBO&rsquo;s Music Director and Principal Conductor&nbsp;Martin West&nbsp;notes: &ldquo;The orchestral music emerges from an electronic haze &ndash; not in contrast to it, but as if growing organically out of the same material [and thus mirroring] the ballet&rsquo;s central question: where does the human end and the machine begin?&rdquo; He praises the score as &ldquo;unmistakably of this moment, yet rooted in the formal discipline that makes great ballet music great. There are themes that develop, textures that breathe, and silences that speak.&rdquo;
The ballet imagines a new ending to the myth, referencing climate crisis &ndash; Hope, in the shape of a bird, flies free from Pandora&rsquo;s jar but can only circle a planet reduced to ash. &ldquo;My favourite part of the whole process was writing&nbsp;Nowhere to land,&rdquo; says Shepherd. &ldquo;When I heard the music I&rsquo;d written on the page transformed by Cordula&rsquo;s exquisite violin-playing it made me excited to write more in the future!&rdquo;
Floating Points&nbsp;will appear live in the European premiere of&nbsp;Mere Mortals&nbsp;at the 2026&nbsp;Edinburgh International Festival&nbsp;(28&nbsp;August, with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; further performances 29 &amp; 30&nbsp;August), and when the work transfers to&nbsp;Sadler&rsquo;s Wells Theatre in London (9-12&nbsp;September, with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia).

A Journey in Sound – Floating Points Shares Falling to Earth

This standalone single is an extended excerpt from the forthcoming album&nbsp;Mere Mortals, a recording of the artist&rsquo;s debut ballet score
Falling to Earth&nbsp;is produced by Floating Points, aka Sam Shepherd, who also performs the track alongside the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra
The single is available to stream and download now
&ldquo;Shepherd&rsquo;s music constantly arrests the ear with new textures and effects, but builds to them carefully, with a film composer&rsquo;s ear for lyricism and a sculptor&rsquo;s sense of form&rdquo;
San Francisco Chronicle
Boundary-pushing artist&nbsp;Sam Shepherd&nbsp;makes his&nbsp;Deutsche Grammophon&nbsp;debut with an extended track for synths and orchestra entitled&nbsp;Falling to Earth, recorded with the&nbsp;San Francisco Ballet Orchestra&nbsp;(SFBO). Respected worldwide as composer-producer-musician-DJ&nbsp;Floating Points, Shepherd is known for mesmeric live sets that often combine acoustic and electronic instruments. As well as a string of hit singles and EPs, he has released acclaimed albums including&nbsp;Elaenia,&nbsp;Crush&nbsp;and the Mercury-shortlisted&nbsp;Promises&nbsp;(with jazz icon Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra).
In 2022, he took on the new challenge of writing a full-length ballet score in response to a commission from&nbsp;Tamara Rojo, Artistic Director of&nbsp;San Francisco Ballet. Inspired by the myth of Pandora,&nbsp;Mere Mortals&nbsp;was premiered at San Francisco&rsquo;s War Memorial Opera House in January 2024, directed by Rojo, with choreography by&nbsp;Aszure Barton&nbsp;and design and visuals by&nbsp;Hamill Industries.
Shepherd played synths live with the SFBO during the production&rsquo;s successful first run, and was reunited with the orchestra to record the work for DG. Issued digitally on&nbsp;1 May 2026&nbsp;as a prelude to the release of the&nbsp;Mere Mortals&nbsp;album later this year,&nbsp;Falling to Earth&nbsp;comes from the heart of the ballet. Like the score as a whole, it blends orchestral and electronic sounds to powerful effect, echoing the retelling of the myth, which draws parallels between Pandora&rsquo;s story and the unforeseeable impact of scientific progress on our own society today.
Floating Points is currently appearing live in a new run of&nbsp;Mere Mortals&nbsp;in San Francisco (final dates 1‑3 May 2026), and will also take part in the work&rsquo;s European premiere at the Edinburgh Festival (28&nbsp;August, with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; also 29 &amp; 30&nbsp;August), and in performances at Sadler&rsquo;s Wells in London (9-12&nbsp;September, with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia).
April 2026

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Title

MERE MORTALS Floating Points

Mere Mortals

This album&nbsp;Mere Mortals is composer-producer Floating Points&rsquo;s (Sam Shepherd) first full-length ballet score. Shepherd, who is known for mesmeric live sets that often combine acoustic and electronic instruments, wrote the work in response to a commission from Tamara Rojo, Artistic Director of San Francisco Ballet. &nbsp;
Inspired by the myth of Pandora and laced with metatextual poetry, Mere Mortals was premiered at San Francisco&rsquo;s War Memorial Opera House in January 2024, directed by Rojo, with choreography by Aszure Barton and design and visuals by Hamill Industries. The score blends orchestral and electronic sounds to powerful effect, echoing the retelling of the myth by drawing parallels between Pandora&rsquo;s story and the unforeseeable impact of scientific progress on our own society today.&nbsp;
The&nbsp;album&nbsp;is&nbsp;available&nbsp;digitally, on CD and&nbsp;vinyl. Order the CD and&nbsp;vinyl&nbsp;editions&nbsp;in the&nbsp;<a href="https://store.deutschegrammophon.com/de-de/collections/floating-points">DG Store</a>.&nbsp;

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