The album due August 30th on Domino is described as a kinetic counterpart to 2021’s Music For Psychedelic Therapy.
Jon Hopkins new album Ritual is toured as a “41-minute ceremonial epic built from cavernous subs, hypnotic drumming and transcendent melodic interplay”, and the culmination of themes explored in Hopkins’ 22-year-career to date.
Ritual is a single piece of music across eight chapters “taking ceremony, spiritual liberation and the hero’s journey as inspiration, it taps into an ancient and primal energy,” the presser says.
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 story of the archetypal hero’s journey – the journey of forgetting and remembering.”
‘RITUAL (evocation)’ debuts today with a video featuring aerial rope performer Bryony Louise Fowler and directed by Dave Bullivant:
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 Dreamachine* immersive experience in London created by Collective Act, in collaboration with a team of artists, scientists and philosophers. 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 will be premiered in spatial audio at London’s ICA on Sunday 12th May giving fans an early opportunity to engage with this special album. Pre-ordering the album will give pre-sale access for ticket.
A further listening event will take place at Glastonbury Festival on their Ambient stage. Jon Hopkins will headline London’s Junction 2 and Green Man festivals this summer alongside shows at Bristol Beacon and Brighton’s Corn Exchange.
Tracklisting:
1. part i – altar
2. part ii – palace / illusion
3. part iii – transcend / lament
4. part iv – the veil
5. part v – evocation
6. part vi – solar goddess return
7. part vii – dissolution
8. part viii – nothing is lost
RITUAL is available to pre-order on DomMart-exclusive double clear vinyl (with artwork print and etching on one side of the vinyl), standard double vinyl, CD and digitally. Pre-order: DomMart | Digital
