Dueting with the universe: 5 Questions for musician Jon Hopkins

Hopkins discusses the making of his album Music for Psychedelic Therapy, what makes good trip music, and Ritual, his seventh studio album, which was released last week.

When COVID lockdowns hit, musician Jon Hopkins was burnt out. Hopkins started his career as the keyboardist for the band Imogen Heap, and went on to collaborate with artists including Brian Eno and Coldplay.  He’s created the soundscape for NASA’s Immersive Earth exhibit; a sensory immersion experience called Dreamachine; and the documentary Wilding. This moment of burnout followed a several years long high point in his career: his 2018 album, Singularity, had been nominated for a 2019 Grammy, reached the top ten in the UK, and received near-universal critical acclaim. Hopkins rode the wave of the album’s success, and toured for months in a row, playing hundreds of shows. By the end of 2019 the sleep deprivation and deep exhaustion of touring had pushed Hopkins to the edge. “I probably would have carried on a little bit longer, but then Covid happened,” he said. “I felt like the universe forced my hand a little bit.”

When lockdowns began, Hopkins had just finished building his home studio, which felt “mysteriously synchronous,” he says. He immersed himself in working on new music, which became the album Music for Psychedelic Therapy. After its 2021 release, it was quickly adopted for the purpose described by its title: psychonauts put it on during their trips, and practitioners played it for their clients. Hopkins received so many notes from listeners that he created a page on his website dedicated to their trip reports. 

The Microdose spoke with him about the making of that album, what makes good trip music, and Ritual, his seventh studio album, which was released last week. 

Where did the idea for Music for Psychedelic Therapy come from? 

I’d gone on an expedition to the Tayos Caves in Ecuador in 2018, and had started working on a piece from that experience; by the end of 2020, it felt like that was the seed of something new. Then [the musician] East Forest gets in touch and asked me if I wanted to work on a track based on a particular talk by guru Ram Dass. I also went through a breakup; extreme heartbreak combined with the existence of these two pieces meant that I could just keep working, and new music just kept appearing. Loads of stuff started getting beamed in — really, that’s how it felt, like it was coming from another place. 

In terms of psychedelic use, at that time I was just using ketamine, but in the years 2015 to 2019, I had regular, twice a year DMT experiences. It wasn't until I started working on psychedelic therapy that I realized that, actually, the information that was coming in was all about this album. My friend Dan, who makes music as 7RAYS, is the collaborator on both Music for Psychedelic Therapy and Ritual; he started receiving similar downloads and started sending me recordings in his woodland, in surround sound, sending me synth sounds that I could never have made. Together we formed this album. There were weeks where I would just go between my house and my own studio, working and not really seeing anyone, not looking after myself at all. It was incredibly unhealthy in all ways, really, but I just felt this immense drive to keep going. 

Then every month or so I would test it with a strong ketamine. The title appeared to me within one of those experiences. I saw the words appear in front of me and I was like, wow, am I really going to call it that? That seems like it could cause trouble. But it didn't; no one cared. I mean, I was already making rave music and I'd already talked openly about psychedelics, so it wasn't a problem. There’s so much dodgy music out there on people’s playlists; I felt I really wanted to take the genre seriously and make longer form music that also had chapters. I wanted to make music I wanted to trip to. So I suppose it's a translation of my own journey.

How would you describe that album to someone who hasn’t heard it?

It's an album that doesn't really have any heaviness or distortion. It doesn't try to sonically challenge you, but it is quite intense. If you listen to it in the background, you can use it as an ambient album. But if you listen to it as I intended — at volume, perhaps on headphones, during a deep psychedelic experience — then it's quite a big experience. It’s been such an honor to receive messages about it. There was one in particular from a war veteran who's had ketamine therapy to it, and he said it saved his life. That’s not something you expect to hear when you set out making dance music 20 years earlier. 

What makes good trip music? Is it possible to put that into words?

Well, not really, that's the thing. When I was making it, I wasn’t really sure why I was doing things. I just knew that they need to be there. And so quite often, it ends up not being what you thought you were setting out to do; you'll try something very random, or you will intentionally randomize something and find that it feels right. There’s this feeling that you’re in a duet with the universe; you just have to be open to everything around you entering the music. While making Music for Psychedelic Therapy, I had a two-note drone, which was on a fifth. I was drinking a beer at the time, and for some reason, I was tapping on the glass, and the exact amount of liquid in the glass created the exact note in the middle of the fifth, turning it into a beautiful major chord. You can hear that very clearly at the start of one of the tracks called “Love Flows Over Us In Prismatic Waves.” 

How would you describe your new album Ritual? 

It's very different from Music for Psychedelic Therapy. It’s like the flip side of the same coin, it's more a kinetic counterpart. I wouldn't recommend people listen to it in a fragile state; I would not sit them down and put Ritual on the headphones. It begins with very gentle ambient elements, but it really becomes a powerful, loud, epic, driving thing in the middle. It feels like you're climbing an endless mountain at one point, hopefully in a good way. The title Music for Psychedelic Therapy sounds like a prescription, right? Ritual is not. It has that neutral title because I intend for it to be something you can apply to your own practice; it can go with psychedelics, or breathwork. It has an earthbound and hypnotic heaviness to it, which emerged through intuition and following trails. It’s also a single piece, which runs 41 minutes. It’s a full length ceremonial piece, ready for whatever ceremony you choose to undergo. 

You’re holding a series of listening experiences for Ritual. What can attendees expect from those?

People have asked me for this album and the last: what is the ideal situation you would recommend for listening? I think collective listening has a certain power, so all these sessions are in immersive audio. We're talking like 70-plus channels of sound, and you’re sitting right there in the middle of the sound with maybe 80 to 100 people. There is some haze and some lighting, but there's no light show, so people are guided towards having their eyes closed. It's loud. It’s a potent experience. 

We started off just doing three in London, and now they've gone all over the world and they're all selling out. People just want to come and have that experience together. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.