Jon Hopkins 'RITUAL' (ALBUM REVIEW)

Very much a comedown album, each of the eight pieces fuse soothing ambient and abrasive industrial, creating a droning hypnotic otherworldly soundscape, eerily redolent of contemporary science fiction cinema.

Selected electronic music albums have been born from research over recent years, MarconiUnion’s Weightless, a pioneering piece of soothing chill out designed in collaboration with sound therapists to create a calming environment, being one of the best known examples. Another research project created Dreammachine, a government funded immersive artexperience and the inspiration behind Jon Hopkins new long player ‘Ritual’ released viaDomino records.  This soothing eight-piece odyssey, Jon Hopkins seventh record, is theLondoner’s first release since 2021s ‘Music For Psychedelic Therapy’. Very much a comedown album, each of the eight pieces fuse soothing ambient and abrasive industrial, creating a droning hypnotic otherworldly soundscape, eerily redolent of contemporary science fiction cinema. 

Opener ‘Altar’ sets the tone, the perfect accompaniment to a dawn sunrise as we segue into the ethereal, gently propulsive ‘Palace/Illusion” arguably the pick of the suite and reminding the listener of classic era Jean Michel Jarre. Next up ‘Transcend/Lament’ slowly darkensfrom its sunlit beginnings and ‘The Veil’ continues this trajectory, with storm clouds startingto appear on the horizon, the sound becoming more abrasive and droning as ‘Evocation’takes over, gradually building to the throbbing climax within ‘Solar Goddess Return’, thecontrols seemingly set for the heart of the sun. Denouement ‘Dissolution/Nothing is Lost’ serves as Ritual’s album’s post coital cigarette, thelight beginning to return as the rough edges are slowly eroded away, the listener well andtruly arrived at Vega.

Celestial.

Words by Michael Price

Jon Hopkins official