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Sep 02, 2021 By Joey Arnone Photography by Steve Gullick

British electronic musician Jon Hopkins has announced the release of his sixth studio album, Music For Psychedelic Therapy, concurrently sharing a video for a new song from the album titled “Sit Around the Fire.” The song features East Forest and the late spiritual practitioner Ram Dass, and the video features animated imagery inspired by Dass’ 1971 book Be Here Now. Music For Psychedelic Therapy will be out on November 12 via Domino. Check out the Tom Readdy and Lucy Dawkins-directed video for “Sit Around the Fire” below, along with the album’s tracklist and cover art.

One of the main inspirations for Hopkins in creating the album was an expedition to Tayos Caves, Ecuador in 2018. “It felt like time for a reset, to wait for music to appear from a different place,” states Hopkins in a press release.

“‘Sit Around The Fire’ exists from one of the deep synchronicities that ushered this thing [Music For Psychedelic Therapy] into being,” adds Hopkins. “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.”

He continues: “What grew from this experience is an album with no beats, not one drum sound, something that is closer to a classical symphony than a dance / electronica record. Something that is more like having an experience than listening to a piece of music. Maybe something far more emotionally honest than I had been comfortable making before—a merging of music, nature and my own desire to heal. The freedom from traditional rhythmic structures unlocked so much—it felt like I was free to explore a new form of rhythm, one that you discover when you just allow things to flow without letting yourself get in the way.

“Music For Psychedelic Therapy is not ambient, classical or drone but has elements of all three. 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. In my own psychedelic explorations testing this music, I found a quote I had read would keep coming to mind. ‘Music is liquid architecture, architecture is frozen music.’ I love this idea of music as something you inhabit, something that works on you energetically. In fact, it was while in that state that the title appeared to me. Psychedelic-assisted therapies are moving into legality across the world, and yet it feels like no one is talking about the music; the music is as important as the medicine.”

Hopkins’ last album, Singularity, came out in 2018 on Domino. Read our interview with Hopkins on the album here.

Music For Psychedelic Therapy Tracklist:

1. Welcome
2. Tayos Caves, Ecuador i
3. Tayos Caves, Ecuador ii
4. Tayos Caves, Ecuador iii
5. Love Flows Over Us In Prismatic Waves
6. Deep In The Glowing Heart
7. Ascending, Dawn Sky
8. Arriving
9. Sit Around The Fire (with Ram Dass, East Forest)

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