Piano Versions

Album review

Jon Hopkins has been in a contemplative mood lately. In 2020, he fell in love with a hundred-year-old Tibetan bowl he had found in an antique shop in New Delhi. This sparked a series called Meditations with the title Singing Bowl (Ascension). Now the Royal College of Music London resident has returned, on solo (upright) piano, with a four-track EP. This is the little brother of his 2014 release Asleep Versions, a collection of four ambient covers of some of his favourite tracks. The album enjoys an all-British cast, with Roger and Brian Eno (Wintergreen), Thom Yorke (Dawn Chorus), Luke Abbott (Modern Driveway) and James Yorkston (Heron). On these four super-calm tracks we hear the piano at work, but also birdsong, or a clatter of dishes from the kitchen. It is as if he were inviting us into his musical meditation. "[...]whatever was going on outside my room is included and even accentuated," explains Hopkins. "I want people to hear not just the recordings but to feel how it felt to be there and make them. It was a deep experience." © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz