Floating Points - Mere Mortals

Mere Mortals is composer-producer Floating Points’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.  

Inspired by the myth of Pandora and laced with metatextual poetry, Mere Mortals was premiered at San Francisco’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’s story and the unforeseeable impact of scientific progress on our own society today.