Jon Hopkins is set to release new album ‘Music For Psychedelic Therapy’ on November 12th.
The new album follows the success of Singularity (2018) and Immunity (2013), full length projects that its maker views as a pair.
This new LP is something quite different. Out digitally on November 12th – the vinyl edition follows on February 11th – ‘Music For Psychedelic Therapy’ is “a place as much as it is a sound…”
The material was prompted by a life-changing expedition to Tayos Caves in Ecuador, an opportunity for “a reset” as he began to “wait for music to appear from a different place”.
New track ‘Sit Around The Fire’ is online now, and it aligns Jon Hopkins with Ram Dass and East Forest.
“‘Sit Around The Fire’ exists from one of the deep synchronicities that ushered this thing (Music For Psychedelic Therapy) into being,” Hopkins comments in a press note.
“I was contacted by East Forest, who had spent some time with Ram Dass in Hawaii before he passed. He was given access to several lesser-heard talks from the 70s, and asked to set them to music. He sent me some starting points, including the beautiful choral vocals he recorded which open the piece. I put my headphones on and with Ram Dass’ voice inside my head, I sat at the piano and improvised. What you hear is the first thing that came out – it just appeared in response to the words.”
“What grew from this experience is an album with no beats, not one drum sound, something that is closer to a classical symphony than a dance / electronica record. Something that is more like having an experience than listening to a piece of music. Maybe something far more emotionally honest than I had been comfortable making before – a merging of music, nature and my own desire to heal. The freedom from traditional rhythmic structures unlocked so much – it felt like I was free to explore a new form of rhythm, one that you discover when you just allow things to flow without letting yourself get in the way.”
Jon Hopkins classes the album as “not ambient, classical or drone but has elements of all three. For me it’s a place as much as it is a sound.”
Tune in now.
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‘Music For Psychedelic Therapy’ will be released on November 12th.
Photo Credit: Steve Gullick
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