Jon Hopkins has announced a new album. It’s called Music for Psychedelic Therapy and it’s out November 12 (digital/CD) and February 11 (LP) via Domino. Today Hopkins has shared album closer “Sit Around the Fire,” a collaboration with producer and ceremony guide East Forest that features the voice of the late guru Ram Dass. Listen to it below.
Hopkins said in a statement that his album, which has no beats or drum sounds, grew from a 2018 expedition to Tayos Caves in Ecuador. “Music for Psychedelic Therapy is not ambient, classical or drone but has elements of all three,” he said. “For me it’s a place as much as it is a sound. It works for the sober mind, but takes on a new dimension entirely when brought into a psychedelic ceremony.”
“‘Sit Around The Fire’ exists from one of the deep synchronicities that ushered this [album] into being,” Hopkins added. “I was contacted by East Forest, who had spent some time with Ram Dass in Hawaii before he passed. He was given access to several lesser-heard talks from the ’70s, and asked to set them to music. He sent me some starting points, including the beautiful choral vocals he recorded which open the piece. I put my headphones on and with Ram Dass’ voice inside my head, I sat at the piano and improvised. What you hear is the first thing that came out—it just appeared in response to the words.”
Music for Psychedelic Therapy is Hopkins’ first full-length since 2018’s Singularity. Last year, he released another wellness-oriented piece titled “Singing Bowl (Ascension),” which he wrote with meditative practices in mind. The track followed another new piano composition, “Scene Suspended,” which Hopkins had debuted live at the Sydney Opera House. He’s more recently issued the covers EP Piano Versions, a counterpart to 2014’s Sleep Versions.
Content
Music for Psychedelic Therapy:
01 Welcome
02 Tayos Caves, Ecuador i
03 Tayos Caves, Ecuador ii
04 Tayos Caves, Ecuador iii
05 Love Flows Over Us in Prismatic Waves
06 Deep In The Glowing Heart
07 Ascending, Dawn Sky
08 Arriving
09 Sit Around The Fire (with Ram Dass, East Forest)
