Late Night Tales welcomes Jon Hopkins with a beautiful and hypnotic sequence of songs, instrumentals and cinematic electronics.
Requiem for a dreamstate. It’s possibly somewhere between heaven, hell and high water, down the Thames Delta towards Eden. It may involve techno and a distorted state or simply mates sat listening to music together, drifting on the open sea of their minds. This is Jon Hopkins’ world, not so much joining the dots as colouring the whole damn picture in.
After releasing his debut album 'Opalescent' at the rookie age of 21 in 1999, he’s gone on to work with Brian Eno, David Holmes, the Mercury nominated King Creosote collaboration 'Diamond Mine' and on three Coldplay albums. His soundtrack work includes scores for Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, How I Live Now, the BBC Zane Lowe rescore of Drive and 2010 film Monsters; nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for Best Original Score. He released the breakthrough album 'Immunity' in 2013, which was also nominated for the Mercury Prize.
The story arc with which Hopkins succeeded on 'Immunity' makes its appearance on Late Night Tales too with a perfectly sculpted excursion on this widescreen mix. Opening with the unreleased 'Sleepers Beat Theme' by composer Ben Lukas Boysen, ghostly pianos skip elegantly hither and thither, among rising strings, as on Darkstar’s ‘Hold Me Down’. Nils Frahm is here, his sonic palette perfect for the job, while labelmate A Winged Victory For The Sullen contribute ‘Requiem For The Static King Part I’. Sigur Ros offshoot Jónsi & Alex’s heroic ‘Daniell In The Sea’ sends us forth towards the Baltic with tears streaming.
Beats occasionally appear, as on the Grace Jones-sampling ‘Yr Love’ by Holy Other or the pair of Black Country acts Bibio and Letherette, whose ‘After Dawn’ is almost spry in comparison to the minor key symphonies on display here. The perfect contrast to this comes from Alela Diane’s wistful ‘Lady Divine’ or even Four Tet’s mesmerising ‘Gillie Amma I Love You’, with its enchanting kids’ choir. Exclusive to this release, Jon Hopkins provides a startlingly vulnerable new piano version of Yeasayer’s ‘I Remember’.
Poet and fellow Brian Eno collaborator (their joint album 'Drums Between The Bells' was released by Warp in 2011) Rick Holland narrates the exclusive spoken word closer 'I Remember', underpinned with new music by Hopkins.
«Putting this album together was a unique opportunity for me to present music that I have been listening to for years, free from the constraints of a club setting or from trying to stick to one genre. I chose tracks not just because they have been important to me but because of how they sit together, putting as much thought into the transitions and overall narrative as I did into the track choices. I mixed by key and by texture more than anything else, using original sound design, pivot notes, and often recording new synth or piano parts to link things together in a way that flows as naturally as possible. I hope you enjoy it.»
— Jon Hopkins, December 2014
Опубликовано: 19 окт. 2013 г.Track 7/8, from Gravity (Ad Noiseam adn168).
The following of Nocturne 1, taking back the ethereal drums from the first part.
I imagine astronauts in an orbital station. They're barely awake as they are still hidden in the shadow of the Earth. This is for me the introduction of almost 90 seconds with the synthesizers' layer, a moment of blur and swaying.
At 1:23, they open their eyes and start preparing for a scheduled outing into space this morning. You're not so often 350 kilometers up in the atmosphere, and one thing I'd like to see up there is a sunrise over the whole planet. They start dressing their space suits and already catch sight of the halo of light announcing the sun, over the horizon formed by half the circumference of our planet. It's time to hurry if you want a good spot on the solar panels.
At 2:59, the sun finally rises, radiating its light in the atmosphere, on the cities, the lands, the oceans, and its warmth spreads all over your suit and reaches the bottom of your heart. It's beautiful, spectacular and unique. The deep drums and the strong play on the piano conveys for me the intensity and the beauty of that moment, particularly at 3:42 and 3:47 that seems to slap you hard in the face and blow your mind up. This whole part is really shaking and unforgettable, and the progression of the notes' pitch is just epic.
You can see that our astronauts try to memorise each frame of that moment as they won't see it again in such a perfect way.
At 4:26, you start to leave them where they are, letting them enjoy this moment alone, and slowly stepping backwards to the Earth. The orbital station is now just a dark dot in the blinding light of the sun, and the faded chorus in the end of this track make the moment surreal. but it's time to go back to reality.
Enjoy folks, and if you feel like it, I'd like you to share your sensations too, here in the comments section or on my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/adda.ambient
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This video is uploaded only in a promotional purpose, as I do not own any rights on this music. All rights reserved to Ben Lukas Boysen and Ad Noiseam.
If you (artist, label or viewer) have any inquiry, just email me at a2damusic@gmail.com
