Although I had heard of Floating Points, the project of London-based musician Sam Shepherd, it was the 2021 album Promises – made in collaboration with Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra – that captured my attention, and I wrote about it in the End Rant ("One Degree") of Tape Op#160. Through mutual friends, Stella Mozgawa [Tape Op#169] and Suzanne Ciani [#148], I met Sam a few years ago, and we ended up doing some cycling and...
Interviews
Sharon Van Etten
Since early in her career, Sharon Van Etten has been refreshingly open about her recording process and the lifelong learning aspect of it. This generosity has shown up in episodes of the podcasts Song Exploder and Life of the Record, as well as a companion documentary providing a behind-the-scenes look into the making of Van Etten’s recent release, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory – to name a few. Through the years, we have seen Van Etten both cede and take control of her work, challenging herself to be more hands-on in the recording realm while also opening up her songwriting process to the influence of her Attachment Theory bandmates. I caught up with the artist virtually, her collection of synths visible in the background.
