A real mega¬production that retains intimacy: this is probably the greatest achievement of what is a very notable piece of work, Producer Floating Points, aka Sam Shepherd, may have laid down a marker in the world of electronica, as his 2015 offering Eleania has the kind of skilled architecture of the best composers, but he has been very shrewd in his choice of saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and London Symphony Orchestra as collaborators this time round, The former, now 80, has all the grace and wisdom commensurate with his living legend status, while the latter display the absolute attention to detail and skill of execution, which affords it so much international kudos.

Promises is a series of focused meditations in nine movements that reflects Shepherd's ability to generate substantial emotional charge by way of pared down materials in which every carefully spaced sliver and sigh of sound makes an impact, The ripples of piano, often doubled by what sounds like a wavering glockenspiel, have both the innocence of a child's music box and the sophistry of a classical intermezzo, and when Sanders’ majestic sax floats over these motifs, ably shadowed by subtle draughts of strings, the result is captivating, Sanders negotiated vaguely similar territory with Alice Coltrane and Lonnie Liston Smith back in the 1970s, and his response to Shepherd's work, really speaks of an individual who, for all his achievements as an ‘energy player’, understands the power of understatement, space and pause, A welcome healing balm for the troubled times in which we live.