JON HOPKINS Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Having taken time out to travel the world and experience new things (including psychedelic substances in California), John Hopkins planned to make Singularity, his ninth album, "a sonic ecosystem that starts and ends on the same note". He soon got frustrated by these limitations, so instead just laid down a fluid and hazy album that combines his usual luscious, ambient electronics with a variety of sparse, heavy and off-kilter rhythms. While undeniably laidback in parts, the album also boasts a number of foreboding techno workouts and uses a wider palette of instrumental sounds than we've come to expect (including some fine strings and his own intricate piano playing). The resultant set is rather impressive, all told, and while not quite a "sonic ecosystem", it's certainly an enjoyable journey.

Review: Jon Hopkins has released a number of very fine albums over the years, though few quite as good as 2009's Insides. Rooted in his particular brand of atmospheric, melody-driven electronica but more ambitious than anything the producer had previously released, Insides' ten tracks effortlessly combine neo-classical instrumentation and tactile electronic melodies with bold and beautiful nods towards dubstep, '90s trip-hop, vintage IDM, music concrete, grizzly late noughties UK bass, and the shimmering, shoegaze-inspired electronica of Ulrich Schnauss (see the superb 'Light Through The Veins', arguably the album's stand out moment). There are occasional surprising, eyebrow-raising musical moments that switch focus or alter the flow of the album, but they never feel jarring or out of place.

Review: Since making a visit to Tayos Caves in Ecuador in 2018, Jon Hopkins has become progressively more interested in the potential of psychedelic therapy, and the ceremonies that accompany psychedelic trips in some cultures. Music For Psychedelic Therapy, his latest album, was partly designed as a soundtrack to such rituals and therapeutic sessions. Musically, it combines elements of ambient, drone and neo-classical, with each of the nine tracks remaining resolutely drum-free. It's an undeniably trippy but meditative affair that strikes a good balance between becalmed bliss and colourful aural intoxication.