Jon Hopkins - Ritual

By turns devotional, empowering and nurturing, Jon Hopkins’ forthcoming RITUAL is a 41-minute electronic symphony built from cavernous subs, hypnotic drumming and transcendent melodic interplay. Tense, immersive and ultimately triumphant, it is a culmination of themes explored throughout his 22-year career, and acts as the kinetic counterpart to 2021’s Music For Psychedelic Therapy. A single piece unfolding over eight chapters, RITUAL is personified by depth and contrast. Taking ceremony, spiritual liberation and the hero's journey as inspiration, it taps into an ancient and primal energy. Talking about RITUAL, Hopkins explains: “I have no idea what I'm doing when I'm composing. I don’t know where it’s coming from, and I don't know where it's going, nor does it seem to matter. I just know when it is finished. So all I can really do is feel my way to the end, then try and retrospectively analyse what might be going on, and try and figure out what its purpose is. What is clear is that this one has the structure of a Ritual. I know what that Ritual is for me, but it will be something different for you. It feels important not to be prescriptive about what this Ritual actually is. “It feels like a tool, maybe even a machine, for opening portals within your inner world, for unlocking things that are hidden and buried. Things that are held in place by the tension in your body. It doesn’t feel like “an album” therefore - more a process to go through, something that works on you. At the same time, it feels like it tells a story. Maybe it's the story of a process I’m going through, and one that we are all going through. Maybe it’s also the story of creation, destruction and transcendence. Maybe it’s the journey of forgetting and remembering”. Featuring long-term collaborators Vylana, 7RAYS, Ishq, Clark, Emma Smith, Daisy Vatalaro and Cherif Hashizume, RITUAL came together within the second half of 2023, but initial seeds were sown in 2022, when Hopkins was commissioned to compose for the stroboscopic Dreamachine experience in London. A project that felt ceremonial from the outset, this shorter piece was the embryo of RITUAL, with Hopkins gaining inspiration from the feeling of intention that is inherent in the Dreamachine space. RITUAL is both emotionally and sonically heavy, whilst retaining a warm, live feel, where the juxtaposition between softness and intensity forms the core of the whole. So take time, prepare and immerse in RITUAL for 41 minutes of uninterrupted listening: sonic divination of the most potent form.