Floating Points surprise-releases ballet score "Mere Mortals" as Edinburgh International Festival stages European premiere
Floating Points, the project of electronic musician Sam Shepherd, surprise-released a new album titled Mere Mortals on 28 August 2026 via Deutsche Grammophon, the classical label founded in 1898 that has increasingly signed artists from outside the conservatory tradition. The album landed the same day its source material — a ballet of the same name — received its European premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival Pitchfork, 28 August 2026.
Mere Mortals is Shepherd's score to the ballet, which retells the myth of Pandora, the figure from Greek mythology who opened a box that unleashed humanity's evils into the world. The production reimagines the story as a cautionary tale rather than a straightforward account of a box opening and disaster following The Guardian, 24 August 2026. Shepherd discussed his reinterpretation of the myth in an interview with The Scotsman published 23 August 2026, telling the paper: "I've given it my own ending."
That ending comes in the album's closing track, "Nowhere to Land," which soundtracks the moment in the ballet when hope flies free from Pandora's jar — the one element that, in the original myth, remains trapped inside Pitchfork.
The ballet is a San Francisco Ballet production that debuted in 2024. Its artistic director, Tamara Rojo, originally commissioned the score from Shepherd. Choreography is by Aszure Barton, a Canadian choreographer whose work spans ballet and contemporary dance. The album was recorded with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, and features violin from Cordula Merks Pitchfork; RA, 5 May 2026.
Shepherd had already shared one piece of the project ahead of the full release: the track "Pandora's Creation" went online on 24 July 2026 Deutsche Grammophon. The full album arrived in all formats — digital, CD and vinyl — on the same label.
For Shepherd, the release continues a career that has moved between the dancefloor and the concert hall. His 2021 album Crush and his 2023 collaboration with the London Symphony Orchestra drew listeners from both worlds. Mere Mortals sits squarely in the second: a full orchestral score written for a staged production, now available to hear without a ticket to Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh International Festival, established in 1947, runs through late August as part of the broader Edinburgh Festival fringe season. The Mere Mortals European premiere on 28 August gives festival audiences the first chance to see the ballet outside the United States.
