With most of us currently stuck in our homes, we need ways to stay sane. One way that a lot of people are trying lately is meditation. And for those of us who have no idea how to will our minds into a state of relaxation, Jon Hopkins is here to help. The high-minded dance producer has just followed up "Scene Suspended," the single he released in February, with a new ambient piece intended for meditation.
Hopkins new track "Singing Bowl (Ascension)" is his contribution to Quiet, a new 24-hour playlist that he put together with Spotify. It's a warm and welcoming piece of ambience that creates a mood with little more than a few sustained tones. He recorded the track with a hundred-year-old singing bowl that he found at a Delhi antique store. Check it out below.
In a press release, Hopkins says:
Like so many people I felt pretty paralysed by this situation when it first unfolded. All my plans for the year were cancelled, and everything felt so weird and dreamlike. But gradually I found I wanted to create something - to find peace and perspective through making music, as I have always done. It felt beautifully pure to just use one acoustic sound source, and no synths. It was liberating to write something without playing anything on a keyboard -- to avoid the familiar diatonic scale for the first time, and thus avoid any of my own conditioned playing habits. There was a magic in setting this generative system in motion then just letting the vibrations of this bowl create their own world. I listened to harmonics layering on top of harmonics for hours and was transported.
"Singing Bowl (Ascension)" is out now on the streaming services.
