Forever Held

My new soundtrack piece, Forever Held, is out today. Excitingly this music was composed in collaboration with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It formed part of their first public immersive experience, Space For Earth, which is located at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC, and has been running for the last year and a half.

The installation, by genius artist Erica Bernhard - who also served as NASA’s creative director - felt very filmic to me, so I took this opportunity to write a full, almost Hollywood-style orchestral score. I wanted to make something timeless that would transmit this feeling of being ‘held’ by the Earth. I was so lucky to have my friend Ólafur Arnalds on board to arrange the orchestra, in our first collaboration.

Ólafur says : "Me and Jon had been waiting for an opportunity to create something together for a while, so I was thrilled to contribute to this beautiful piece of music, and can’t wait to see where this creative journey takes us."

Thank you so much to my friend Erica Bernhard for inviting me to be part of this project - it has been amazing, and has reignited an interest in scoring for me. The music video for “Forever Held”, which she created and directed, envelops NASA imagery and data onto two motion-captured dancers: the ‘Space’ character comprised of NASA Webb telescope data while the ‘Earth’ character is wrapped in NASA satellite imagery of the Earth at night, as they perform an eternal dance.

Erica says : “Collaborating with Jon on this beautiful piece for our installation NASA was surreal - an artist capable of capturing the intimacy within the enormity of our planet; masterfully constructing the emotions of the ‘overview effect’. It’s a ballad to awe”

Some other cool stuff has been happening with this track.. Forever Held formed the opening to Coldplay’s new album, Moon Music, which has been a global number one. In addition to this, the waveform of the song has been engraved and encoded onto a NanoFiche disk, which is being sent to the moon via NASA’s Artemis partners, as part of the Lunar Codex archive.

My brand new Early Hours DJ Mix is now live on Apple Music

My brand new Early Hours DJ Mix is now live on Apple Music.

I went very deep on the sound design and transitions with this one. I do DJ mixes so rarely that I wanted to approach it more like making an album. I asked Sofia Kourtesis and Mano Le Tough for stems, so I could weave their tracks in and out in a more interesting way than would be possible with just the masters. So grateful to them both for helping me out with these! I also improvised live piano on top of the Rodriguez Jr track, making what feels like quite a new and surprising thing. I used layers of two Mattheis tracks at once, tuned to the same pitch, to again create something new. I field-recorded birdsong for one section that just felt for some reason felt like it needed it. It's been amazing fun to put together, and I hope you enjoy it!

Immunity is 10 years old today

Immunity is 10 years old today. The album was written between late 2010 and early 2012. I poured everything into it, taking so much care over every element. I had often not felt my track titles in the past fully represented what I was trying to say in the music, so I worked with the poet Rick Holland on the titles for this one. We sat in pubs and talked for hours about what I was trying to convey, then he went away and wrote stream-of-consciousness style poetry and I found the titles hiding in there.

Musically I remember being pretty burnt out by the end of making this record. The main riff on Open Eye Signal was created on the 1979 Korg MS20 that's pictured. This riff alone I must have spent 4 months on. The notes were in place quite early, but the gradual changes to the sound took so long. So much effort into trying to make something sound effortless.

The title track dated back as far as 2005, to when my piano was still at my mum's house. It was recorded on a £25 mic I had since I was a kid. Around this time I met King Creosote, but didn't put his vocals on the song until a few years later when we were making Diamond Mine.

For the artwork for Immunity, I didn't want to just use a graphic that was created digitally. All the project's imagery is made up of photographs of crystals forming under microscopes, taken by biochemist and artist Linden Gledhill. I loved this idea of creating something abstract and organic but within a tiny physical space, and filming that beautifully. It felt like it represented the way I make sounds, which often involves stretching things out, slowing things down, seeing what's hidden inside.

This record changed my life. I went from playing 500 cap venues to 5000 cap in less than a year. The whole thing was a whirlwind, and has since given me the freedom to follow any creative route that comes to me. Making and releasing it was a very special experience.

I have never had anything I’ve made remastered before, but had occasionally wondered if the loud mastering on Immunity is something I would still have done today. When Guy Davie and I returned to the pre-masters, I was suddenly wary of messing with it, creatively changing something that people were familiar with and that had become important to them. So we went back to the original settings, then ran the tracks through Guy's EMI mastering console. The results were captured in 96k digital, then processed subtly by a Weiss expander. I love the added movement and flow that comes from this recovered dynamic range. It just has a little more breathing space, whilst retaining the grit and intensity it always had.

Listen to the remastered Immunity now, and order the vinyl & CD.

Announcing BBC Proms performance at Royal Albert Hall, August 29th

I'm returning to the Royal Albert Hall for a special show on August 29th, as part of this year’s BBC Proms. This involves a world premiere of my first ever composition for full orchestra and choir, alongside orchestral reinterpretations of the more meditative pieces from my albums. I have this idea of turning the Royal Albert Hall into a huge group sonic meditation. This concert will be a collaboration with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Singers, and Creative Artist In Association, Jules Buckley.

Tickets are on sale now.

Introducing 'Tayos Caves, Ecuador (Meditation Version)'

Introducing ‘Tayos Caves, Ecuador (Meditation Version)’ and ‘Ascending, Dawn Sky (Meditation Version)’.

Music For Psychedelic Therapy was not written to be a meditation album, but I've found that once you release something, it's better to let go of how you see it yourself, and allow it to become its own thing. It turns out a lot of people like to use it for meditation, so I thought it would be cool to make a version of one of the central pieces - Tayos Caves, Ecuador - that is better suited for this purpose. To do this, I removed all the field recordings, so that no specific imagery is brought to mind, and it no longer has that very precise sense of place. This version is more neutral, more gentle. I found revisiting this music quite inspiring, so I created a similar refinement of Ascending, Dawn Sky.

JON HOPKINS & FRIENDS at KOKO

Announcing JON HOPKINS & FRIENDS at KOKO, 12 November. Inspired by my life-changingly fun set at San Remo Glastonbury, I am curating a club night at the newly-reopened Koko in Camden. The full line-up will be announced nearer the time but I can tell you that the artists DJing are legends and friends whose stuff you will know and love. I will be doing a two hour DJ/live hybrid thing with lots of new tunes.

Pre-Sale tickets will go live on the 13th of September & general release will be on sale 14th of September. See you there! X

Deep In The Glowing Heart (Night Version)

Since finally being able to start DJing again I have had such a craving to return to making rhythmic music. The idea to use stems from my recent album as starting points for new tracks was exciting to me, but I didn't want to just make these new things just on my own, as more and more I am feeling inspired to collaborate, particularly with artists I am friends with and who have really different sounds.

I first came across ANNA’s music through her track Hidden Beauties, which I found myself playing in DJ sets all the time and always goes down so well. The mix is so heavy and clear, with so much weight and energy. I asked her to remix Singularity and the results were so amazing I was super keen to work with her again. We went back and forth a lot, with both of us trying early versions in our DJ sets to see what worked and didn't. I love how this one turned out, it’s such a meeting of our two styles.

Trip Reports

I've received so many beautiful messages about the deep things you have been experiencing with the new album. It's been a total privilege.

I created a space called Trip Reports on my website, where you can anonymously share and discuss these with other listeners. I will also be on there occasionally to answer questions and respond. Go here: https://jonhopkins.co.uk/trip-...

My 6th album is out now

So grateful to you all that I get to keep doing this after 22 years, and your openness to me trying so many new things along the way.

Thank you to everyone who helped bring this record into the world. I’ve never made anything that feels so personal before.

Best played loud in the right set and setting.

Music For Psychedelic Therapy

My sixth full-length solo album is called Music For Psychedelic Therapy. It is released digitally and on CD on the 12th of November, and on vinyl on the 11th of February, 2022. Pre-order at the link below.

"Sit Around The Fire" is the first single. It is built around a talk by Ram Dass that was given in 1975, which I had the honour of scoring in collaboration with my friend East Forest. For the video, we had the opportunity of bringing to life the iconic imagery from Ram Dass' seminal book Be Here Now, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this autumn. This stunning animation was done by Tom Readdy and Lucy Dawkins at Yes Please. I hope you enjoy it, and that Ram Dass' words can bring you some of the clarity and love they brought me. Watch it at the link below.

New EP 'Piano Versions' is out now

Piano Versions is four minimal, ambient piano covers of songs I have loved for a long time but that come from very different places. It seems to me that melody is universal and the ones that I really connect to shine out irrespective of genre or context, whether from techno, folk or whatever. I loved the simplicity of having my old upright piano be the centre of a whole record for the first time. But the importance of letting the outside world into the recordings is as present for me as ever, so there are layers of incidental noise, bird song, the sound of someone washing up in the studio kitchen - whatever was going on outside my room is included and even accentuated. I want people to hear not just the recordings but to feel how it felt to be there and make them. It was a deep experience.

Tayos Caves, Ecuador

Excited to announce my first release of the year - a new 20 minute immersive ambient / classical piece called Tayos Caves, Ecuador. There will be a global release later in the year but for now it is available to members of The Liminal Compass, a new online journey through meditation, art, music, storytelling, poetry and community, inspired by Ecuador's Tayos Caves. Follow @Tayos_org or visit www.tayos.org to sign up.

So back in 2018 I was invited on an expedition to spend a few nights in these caves, which lie under the high Amazon in Ecuador. To get there we had to descend a 60 metre drop on a tiny rope, which was fucking terrifying. Once safely down however, it was all peace and warmth. 12 of us lived down there for 4 days with no daylight, surrounded by bizarre and beautiful creatures, the sound of oilbirds, and the underground river that created these caves. The point of me being there was to translate the experience into music. I didn't have time to build it until the disruption of my touring in 2020 - but when I did, it appeared almost fully formed. I have never encountered so little resistance in making a piece of music.

My friend Mendel Kaelen captured some stunning field recordings of the whole experience which I used heavily in the piece. I wanted to make something that would feel like a duet between my instruments and the music of this incredible place.

Follow @Tayos_org on Instagram and Facebook

Visuals by 2MS Studio.

New piano cover of 'Dawn Chorus' by Thom Yorke

As 2020 comes to a close, I am pleased to share my new piano cover of 'Dawn Chorus' by Thom Yorke, taken from his recent album, Anima.

I felt such bliss the first time I heard this piece - it seemed so mysterious and hypnotic, oblique but warm. I thought there was so much beauty in that chord sequence that there was room to explore it on the piano and see what grew from it. One day in early April when everything was particularly quiet and surreal outside, I went into my studio for the first time in weeks and ended up recording the whole thing in one take. I left it very raw and upfront, with just some sub bass and vocal drones in the background. The whole thing was done in a day and was a very cathartic experience.

Flume - The Difference (feat. Tori Y Moi) [Jon Hopkins Remix] out now

My remix of Flume - The Difference (feat. Tori Y Moi) is out now.

First remix I’ve done in a couple of years… play loud….

"Singing Bowl (Ascension)" is out today

Like so many people I felt pretty paralysed by this situation when it first unfolded. All my plans for the year were cancelled, and everything felt so weird and dreamlike. But gradually I found I wanted to create something - to find peace and perspective through making music, as I have always done. I wanted to make something for the meditative mindset I found myself in, so I turned to some recordings I had made last year of an 100 year old singing bowl that was found in an antique shop in Delhi. I decided to restrict myself to using just this instrument and a laptop, and with this as a starting point, built a 21 minute meditation piece.

It felt beautifully pure to just use one acoustic sound source, and no synths. It was liberating to write something without playing anything on a keyboard - to avoid the familiar diatonic scale for the first time, and thus avoid any of my own conditioned playing habits. There was a magic in setting this generative system in motion then just letting the vibrations of this bowl create their own world. I listened to harmonics layering on top of harmonics for hours and was transported.

visuals by @2ms_studio

New piano composition "Scene Suspended" out now

My new piano composition “Scene Suspended” is out now.

The main tracks on Singularity were built of hundreds of layers and processes, and took nearly two years to build. Following on from this I’ve been craving a return to simplicity, to acoustic sound and to the instrument I grew up playing. In order to express similar themes but to use as little as possible to achieve this the only sound sources on “Scene Suspended” are piano and violin.

Luminous Spaces 12” with Kelly Lee Owens

Luminous Spaces, my collaboration with Kelly Lee Owens, is out now on limited edition 12”. The full length sister track Luminous Beings is on the B-side

New track - Luminous Spaces

I made a new collaborative track with my friend Kelly Lee Owens. It started life as a remix she was doing for Luminous Beings, but when I heard what she had done to it, particularly the incredible vocal lines, it became clear this needed to be its own thing, like a more overtly euphoric sister track to the original.

Australian tour dates - January 2020

I will be returning to Australia this Jan for a mix of live and DJ dates.

Singularity nominated for Best Dance / Electronic Album for the 2019 GRAMMY Awards

Fifth studio album from UK producer gets nod for best dance/electronic category

New album ‘Singularity’ out now

Singularity is available on special edition double gatefold coloured LP with photographic print, standard LP, CD and digitally.

Daniel Avery and Jon Hopkins trade remixes

Jon Hopkins jumps on "Glitter", Daniel Avery adds his magic to "C O S M"

Stephan Hinz remixes "Everything Connected"

German producer Stephan Hinz reworks "Everything Connected"

Jon Hopkins appears on Cory Allen's Astral Hustle podcast

Jon Hopkins appears on Cory Allen's Astral Hustle podcast