Jon Hopkins | ||
| Allmusic Biography : On his own and with collaborators such as Brian Eno, Coldplay, Massive Attack, and Herbie Hancock, English producer Jon Hopkins blends his classical training and passion for electronic music into lush arrangements and soothing ambiences. As the 2010s drew to a close, he established himself as an Ivor Novello and Mercury Prize-nominated composer and musician. Growing up in Wimbledon, Hopkins was a gifted child pianist who studied piano at the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music for five years. Along with his fascination with the works of Ravel and Stravinsky, he also fell in love with electronic music at a young age and was a fan of synth pop acts like Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys. During his teens, he started making acid house and drumnbass, using the money he won from piano competitions to buy himself synths and recording gear. After leaving school, Hopkins joined Imogen Heaps band as a keyboardist, and toured with her throughout 1998. He signed to Just Music in 2001, and recorded his debut album, Opalescent, while working part-time as a studio session musician in Wembley. His next album, 2004s Contact Note, had a more cinematic feel. It gained the respect of Brian Eno, who recruited Hopkins to play keys on his 2005 album, Another Day on Earth, beginning a long-running collaboration between the two. Around this time, Hopkins also began another extended creative relationship with King Creosote, producing the Scottish singer/songwriters 2007 album, Bombshells. That year, Eno invited Hopkins to work on Coldplays 2008 album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, on which he played various keyboards and co-produced several tracks with Eno. Along with serving as the opening act on Coldplays 2008 world tour, he composed music for Entity, a piece by choreographer Wayne McGregor that was performed worldwide. During this time, Hopkins also worked on his own music, and released his third solo album, Insides, in May 2009. Combining strings, piano and dubstep-tinged bass along with synths and beats, the album reached number 15 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart. Hopkins continued to collaborate, working with Tuung on their 2009 EP, Seven Gulps of Air, and joining forces with Eno, Underworlds Karl Hyde, longtime friend Leo Abrahams, and the Necks as Pure Scenius, an improv group that played a series of concerts. Hopkins also began composing for film, working with Eno and Abrahams on the score to Peter Jacksons The Lovely Bones. On his own, he wrote the music for the 2010 short film Rob and Valentyna and Gareth Edwards sci-fi film Monsters, which was also released in 2010 and earned an Ivor Novello Award nomination for Best Original Score. That year, Hopkins reunited with Abrahams and Eno on the improvisation-based album Small Craft on a Milk Sea. In 2011, he and King Creosote released the largely acoustic Diamond Mine; the culmination of seven years worth of work, it was nominated for a Mercury Prize. The pair followed it with two EPs, 2011s Honest Words and 2012s The Jubilee. Diamond Mine influenced Hopkins 2013 album, Immunity, an organic-sounding set of energetic dance music and more reflective moments that also earned a Mercury Prize nomination. After writing the score for the 2013 film How I Live Now, he returned with 2014s Asleep Versions, an EP of tranquil and vocal-heavy versions of tracks from Immunity featuring vocals from King Creosote and Braids Raphaelle Standell-Preston. In 2015, Hopkins contributed a volume to the LateNightTales mix series, and reissued Opalescent in 2016 to celebrate its 15-year anniversary. Early in 2018, the single "Emerald Rush" heralded the release of his fifth album, Singularity, that May. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 18 Title: Opalescent Released: 2001-07-30 Tracks: 12 Duration: 55:41 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Elegiac (06:24) 2 Private Universe (05:40) 3 Halcyon (05:01) 4 Opalescent (02:11) 5 Lost in Thought (06:16) 6 Fading Glow (06:58) 7 Apparition (02:02) 8 Inner Peace (04:53) 9 Cerulean (03:58) 10 Grace (04:17) 11 Cold Out There (03:54) 12 Afterlife (04:02) |
 | Album: 2 of 18 Title: Contact Note Released: 2004-08-09 Tracks: 12 Duration: 1:01:27 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Circle (05:48) 2 Second Sense (05:13) 3 Contact Note (07:47) 4 Searchlight (02:16) 5 Symmetry (05:12) 6 100 (06:00) 7 Glasstop (02:43) 8 Sleepwalker (04:34) 9 Reprise (03:14) 10 Nightjar (07:31) 11 Black and Red (05:25) 12 Luna Moth (05:38) |
 | Album: 3 of 18 Title: The Art of Chill 2 Released: 2005-09-09 Tracks: 26 Duration: 2:02:18 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 All Things to All Men (05:34) 2 Swollen (05:58) 3 Train Ride (02:15) 4 My Sunset (05:12) 5 Wherever You Are (05:49) 6 Sensorium (01:15) 7 Tha (05:29) 8 Cold Out There (03:29) 9 Toucan (04:39) 10 Kobresia (04:35) 11 And Then So Clear (05:41) 12 Dont Look Back (04:41) 13 Khanada (04:46) 1 Hide and Seek (04:17) 2 Monday - Paracetamol (06:36) 3 Cold Water Music (05:27) 4 Venice (05:25) 5 The Return (06:02) 6 The Other World (05:19) 7 Losing My Mind (02:44) 8 Love Movement (Ulrich Schnauss remix) (04:27) 9 Second Sense (05:13) 10 Life Is Beautiful (03:00) 11 Hayling (03:22) 12 Eclisse (04:00) 13 Heavy Mellow (Jon Hopkins Symphonic remix) (07:03) |
 | Album: 4 of 18 Title: EP1 Released: 2005-10-21 Tracks: 3 Duration: 15:40 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Fairytale (04:52) 2 Song One (04:04) 3 The End (06:44) |
 | Album: 5 of 18 Title: The Fourth State Released: 2006-04-17 Tracks: 1 Duration: 32:14 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 The Fourth State (32:14) |
 | Album: 6 of 18 Title: 10×10:02 Released: 2006-11-30 Tracks: 4 Duration: 19:27 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Circle My Demise (06:12) 2 Stones (03:08) 3 Introduction (02:18) 4 Fanfare (07:49) |
 | Album: 7 of 18 Title: Insides Released: 2008-11-30 Tracks: 10 Duration: 48:28 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 The Wider Sun (02:34) 2 Vessel (04:41) 3 Insides (04:38) 4 Wire (04:41) 5 Colour Eye (05:11) 6 Light Through the Veins (09:18) 7 The Low Places (06:34) 8 Small Memory (01:40) 9 A Drifting Up (06:27) 10 Autumn Hill (02:40) |
| Insides : Allmusic album Review : Jon Hopkins got a pretty big résumé boost in 2008 through his production work (alongside Brian Eno and others) on Coldplays Viva la Vida. Prior to this he had worked with Massive Attack and released two albums on small labels. His debut for Domino, 2009s Insides, is his first record that many people will hear and its a promising, but flawed, debut. It shows that Hopkins has a firm grasp on many styles of electronic music but doesnt prove to be a master of any. He dips into ominously distorted gangsta glitch on the title track, lush big beat on "Wire," burbling orchestral dubstep on "Vessel," and icy cold IDM on "Colour Eye," and while each excursion sounds good, there is nothing much happening that a fan of electronic music in its many forms hasnt heard done better before. If there is an overriding aesthetic to Insides, its the kind of ambient techno that labels like Instinct and artists like Pete Namlook and Irresistible Force were making in the early 90s. He creates acoustic instruments with synthesizers and programmed beats to create very pleasant, very well-crafted pieces that dont really challenge the listener but instead create a kind of warm, fuzzy blanket of sound for them to settle into. The problem many artists face who attempt this is that the end result comes awfully close to sounding like generic new agey music that drifts in one ear and out the other. While there are some tracks, like the overly subdued "The Low Places" and the beat-free songs that bookend the album ("The Wider Sun" and "Autumn Hill") that fall prey to this, mostly Hopkins ear for a good melody and his willingness to occasionally dirty up the beats keep the album off of life support. The best song here, the sunny and bright, epic-length electro-ballad "Light Through the Veins," even points to a possible future where Hopkins develops a voice of his own and makes a record that breaks free of the genre exercises and half-formed ideas that may keep Insides from being a success. | ||
 | Album: 8 of 18 Title: Seven Gulps of Air Released: 2009-11-10 Tracks: 5 Duration: 31:45 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Seven Gulps of Air (03:40) 2 Small Memory (Tunng remix) (04:56) 3 The Low Places (Geese remix) (07:02) 4 A Drifting Down (07:01) 5 Light Through the Veins (Tom Middleton remodel) (09:06) |
 | Album: 9 of 18 Title: Small Craft on a Milk Sea Released: 2010-10-21 Tracks: 4 Duration: 11:53 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Surfacing (02:19) 2 Square Chain (02:35) 3 Bimini Twist (03:13) 4 Abandoned Ship (03:44) |
| Small Craft on a Milk Sea : Allmusic album Review : Brian Enos best recordings are timeless. Even his great recordings are practically timeless. His recordings after the 80s, however, gradually acquired a different description: dated. Released in 1992, Nerve Net attempted to cross both his ambient and pop records of the 70s with faddish techno, while The Drop invoked his ambient period to a sterilizing effect. (Even ambient records need some ambience.) His work of the 2000s was heavily collaborational, fortunately showing him to be still curious about the varieties of musical expression -- beyond what hes been able to display while producing for U2 and Coldplay. Small Craft on a Milk Sea regains the timeless, ageless feel of his best ambient work. It stands as his first record for Warp, a label that has long worshiped at the altar of headphone electronica, although much of this album is the fruit of sessions originally recorded (but declined) for the Lovely Bones soundtrack; some of it was written and recorded by Eno and frequent collaborator Leo Abrahams while they were touring Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, Enos 2008 pop album with David Byrne. Warp has been known for quality control for over 20 years, and this one is no different -- its the best Eno record in 20 years (although thats not saying much). The opener, "Emerald and Lime," is a piece of bright ambience -- as close to a Starbucks soundtrack as a stereotypical Eno work can get. The title track has the dark textures of the later ambient works (Ambient 4: On Land), while the middle section has nods to contemporary electronic music -- "Flint March" is pummeling, percussive techno, and the next track, "Horse," also indulges -- then its back to opaque, spacious ambience with "Calcium Needles" and "Emerald and Stone." Here too, some tracks have the earthy bass of Ambient 4: On Land, others the formless but inviting void of Discreet Music, still others the heart-stopping piano isolationism of the original Ambient 1: Music for Airports. Eno may be trading on his earlier developments in ambience to a small degree, but Small Craft on a Milk Sea is a good and proper balance of curiosity and expression. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 18 Title: Monsters Released: 2010-11-10 Tracks: 12 Duration: 31:30 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Prologue (01:14) 2 Journey (02:52) 3 Candles (02:28) 4 Water (01:18) 5 Underwater (02:00) 6 Spores (01:47) 7 Campfire (02:36) 8 Dawn (01:58) 9 Attack (01:57) 10 Temple (02:30) 11 Encounter (05:49) 12 Monsters Theme (04:55) |
 | Album: 11 of 18 Title: Diamond Mine Released: 2011-03-28 Tracks: 7 Duration: 32:08 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 First Watch (02:36) 2 John Taylors Month Away (06:31) 3 Bats in the Attic (03:43) 4 Running on Fumes (06:36) 5 Bubble (05:34) 6 Your Own Spell (03:51) 7 Your Young Voice (03:17) |
| Diamond Mine : Allmusic album Review : Described by singer/songwriter Kenny Anderson (aka King Creosote) as the "soundtrack to a romanticized version of a life lived in a Scottish coastal village", Diamond Mine is a seven-track collection of previously unrecorded Anderson originals that have been doused in Brian Eno-inspired soundscapes by ambient producer Jon Hopkins, littered with rural field recordings and studded with occasional flourishes of accordions and strings. Languid, pastoral, and remarkably serene (each track segues into each other like ice melting on a spring pond), Diamond Mine is so unobtrusive that it barely registers. Andersons lilting croon, which deftly blends traditional, Scottish folk stoicism with modern, indie folk candor, sits front and center, though his delivery is so even-handed that even he blends into the foliage, but on stand-out cuts like “John Taylor’s Month Away” and “Running on Fumes,” his deft lyricism and gift for guiding a melody through such open terrain helps to keep this lovely collection of ambient folk songs from disappearing into the ether. | ||
 | Album: 12 of 18 Title: Honest Words Released: 2011-09-19 Tracks: 3 Duration: 10:53 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Honest Words (03:07) 2 Aurora Boring Alias (04:20) 3 Bats in the Attic (Unravelled) (03:26) |
 | Album: 13 of 18 Title: The Jubilee E.P. Released: 2012-04-16 Tracks: 6 Duration: 22:48 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Honest Words (03:07) 2 Aurora Boring Alias (04:00) 3 Bats in the Attic (Unravelled) (03:26) 4 Missionary (02:56) 5 Third Swan (03:24) 6 Starboard Home (05:52) |
 | Album: 14 of 18 Title: Immunity Released: 2013-06-03 Tracks: 8 Duration: 59:59 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 We Disappear (04:49) 2 Open Eye Signal (07:48) 3 Breathe This Air (05:29) 4 Collider (09:21) 5 Abandon Window (04:57) 6 Form by Firelight (05:45) 7 Sun Harmonics (11:54) 8 Immunity (09:56) |
| Immunity : Allmusic album Review : Between Insides and its follow-up Immunity, Jon Hopkins worked with King Creosote on the charming Diamond Mine, which set the Scottish singer/songwriters ruminations to backdrops that were half rustic folk and half evocative washes of sound. Immunity isnt nearly as acoustic as that collaboration was, but its gently breezy feel lingers on several of these songs: "Breathe This Air" expands from a pounding house rhythm into a roomy piano meditation that recalls Max Richter as much as Diamond Mine, while the title track -- which happens to feature King Creosotes vocals -- closes the album on a whispery note. This feeling extends to the rest of the album in less obvious ways; Immunity is often a more blended, and more expansive-sounding work than Insides, particularly on songs like the Brian Eno-esque "Abandon Window" and "Form by Firelight," which offers a playful study in contrasts in the way it bunches into glitches and then unspools a peaceful piano melody. Some of Immunitys most impressive moments expand on the blend of rhythm and atmosphere Hopkins emphasized on Insides: "Collider" uses sighing vocals courtesy of Dark Horses Lisa Elle as punctuation for almost imperceptibly shifting beats and a heavy bassline that helps the track build into a moody, elegant whole; meanwhile, the aptly named "Sun Harmonics" turns Elles sighs into something angelic over the course of 12 serene minutes. Despite these highlights, the album still reflects how Hopkins polished approach is something of a blessing and a curse. Immunity shows how hes grown, in his subtle, accomplished way, as a composer and producer, yet its tracks occasionally feel like the surroundings for a focal point that never arrives. Even if it doesnt always demand listeners attention, Immunity is never less than thoughtfully crafted. | ||
 | Album: 15 of 18 Title: How I Live Now Released: 2013-10-07 Tracks: 16 Duration: 44:02 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Do It With a Rockstar (04:26) 2 The Field (01:47) 3 The River (01:51) 4 Rain and Ash (02:42) 5 The Hawk (01:33) 6 Distant Fire (00:47) 7 Nightfall / Love Theme (01:08) 8 Taken Away (02:37) 9 Home (Jon Hopkins remix) (03:04) 10 Escape (02:59) 11 The Forest / Plane Wreck (02:50) 12 Gatesfield (04:25) 13 Hunted (01:41) 14 Lost Map / The Hawk (03:48) 15 How I Live Now (04:34) 16 Garden’s Heart (03:50) |
 | Album: 16 of 18 Title: Asleep Versions Released: 2014-11-10 Tracks: 4 Duration: 24:52 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Immunity (06:23) 2 Form by Firelight (04:14) 3 Breathe This Air (Asleep Version) (03:13) 4 Open Eye Signal (Asleep Version) (11:02) |
 | Album: 17 of 18 Title: LateNightTales: Jon Hopkins Released: 2015-02-27 Tracks: 19 Duration: 1:23:31 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Sleepers Beat Theme (04:47) 2 Hold Me Down (07:18) 3 Yr Love (04:42) 4 Verbena Tea (04:24) 5 More (08:56) 6 I Am Daylights (03:05) 7 Babe (02:52) 8 After Dawn (04:31) 1 I Remember (04:21) 2 Hey Maggy (04:59) 3 Lady Divine (05:12) 4 Missing Photos (02:02) 5 Connjur (04:37) 6 And It’s Alright (Nils Frahm remix) (04:34) 7 Gillie Amma I Love You (05:47) 8 Down to the Sound (02:35) 9 Requiem for the Static King 1 (02:46) 10 Emancipation (02:35) 11 I Remember (03:28) |
 | Album: 18 of 18 Title: Singularity Released: 2018-05-04 Tracks: 9 Duration: 1:02:10 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Singularity (06:29) 2 Emerald Rush (05:36) 3 Neon Pattern Drum (06:07) 4 Everything Connected (10:30) 5 Feel First Life (05:33) 6 C O S M (07:08) 7 Echo Dissolve (03:21) 8 Luminous Beings (11:51) 9 Recovery (05:35) |
| Singularity : Allmusic album Review : Singularity is the proper follow-up to Jon Hopkins 2013 breakthrough Immunity, a spellbinding album of highly intricate, glitchy techno which nevertheless felt organic, and even classical at times. Like that album, Singularity is filled with frayed feedback, skillfully crafted beats, and gentle piano melodies, as well as the occasional breathy vocals. This time out, there seems to be an extra shot of adrenaline added, and the album seems to reflect a deeper spiritual quest, both inwards and outwards. Hopkins still writes lengthy tracks which steadily build, but these are more suspenseful, and theres a greater impact when a heavier beat drops or a more transcendent synth tone emerges during the second half of cuts like "Singularity" and "Neon Pattern Drum." First single "Emerald Rush" progresses from a heartbeat-like pulse, lightly swirling arpeggios, and stark piano notes to a slow, jagged thump of a beat, which feels jarring when it finally kicks in. As additional sounds pour in, the intensity increases, making the track feel like its speeding up a bit, even though it isnt. Ten-minute epic "Everything Connected" is easily one of Hopkins most "progressive" tracks yet, with an ambient/shoegaze shimmer floating over its shaky rhythm, which seems like the only thing preventing the track from ascending to the heavens. Hopkins expands on this celestial state with the beatless "Feel First Life," which spotlights the London Voices choir. "Luminous Beings," the albums lengthiest track, begins with anxious static and suspicious murmurings, but soon reaches clarity, with a simple, resonating triplet melody leading toward peace of mind for much of the piece. The sparse, pretty piano comedown "Recovery" is an entirely fitting conclusion to such a deeply introspective journey. As striking as Immunity was, Singularity feels more developed, and its ultimately a tough call as to which album is more exciting. | ||