Review Summary: With Ritual, Jon Hopkins has created another meticulously crafted and coherent auditory journey
After establishing his sound on his earlier albums, Hopkins struck gold with his 2013 album Immunity. Two qualities really set Jon apart. First is Hopkins’ ability to take you on an auditory journey. Immunity has the structure of a drug trip: several intense peaks and throughs followed by a long and meandering come down. The album feels like going on an adventure - exemplified well by the music video for ‘open eye signal’. Second is Hopkins’ meticulous craft. Hopkins has an unrivaled ability to conjure up complex and unique soundscapes which evolve and twist beautifully. Often going from intense bursts of energy to ambient release quickly and in an organic way.
Hopkins’ meticulousness - apparently it took him three months just to create the synth lead on ‘open eye signal’ - came at a cost. Hopkins left the creation of Immunity with an intense sense of burnout. Five years later however, he did it all again, creating a similar album with his 2018 Singularity. Afterwards, his music took a different turn. Hopkins expanded on his ambient proclivities already present on his earlier albums with works such as Music for Psychedelic Therapy as well as several singles and cooperations. Ritual feels like somewhat of a synthesis between his earlier more intense auditory journeys and his later ambient work - combining the coherent storytelling and some of the intensity of his earlier work with a more ambient feel.
Both of the aforementioned qualities are on display on Hopkins’ latest. The album, as the title and song titles make very clear, describes a ritual. It starts of slow and ambient with part i 'altar', establishing a sense of anticipation, then in part ii and iii it slowly builds energy. Using rhythmic elements, chants, Buddhist bells and ceaseless repetition, Hopkins creates the sense that some sort of prayer is taking place. This then slowly transforms at the end of part iii and in part iv into a feeling of something arriving. Until in part v 'evocation' a repeating synth line is introduced and the energy slowly reaches a climax. It’s here. Part vi 'solar goddess returns' takes this climax to its logical conclusion. The sound of rhythmic breathing gives the impression of some type of religious ecstasy being reached. After this, in part vii 'dissolution' Hopkins takes his time to slowly unwind the energy and in part viii 'nothing is lost' he looks around and picks up the pieces.
Hopkins’ meticulous craft is on display here. The album is essentially one long song. Parts aren't as much introduced as they flow from one into the other. Although Hopkins takes his time for this auditory journey, no two measures sound exactly the same. There's always something going on somewhere, yet nothing feels disjointed or out of place. How one achieves this level of detail without losing coherence in the album or losing one's own mind in the creation process is beyond this reviewers comprehension. This makes listening to Alter a joy even on the more subdued moments of the album
With Ritual, Hopkins has created another coherent auditory journey. However, despite the album being 41 minutes long, it somehow feels short. It takes it’s time to get going and in the end, the album describes only one ascend - climax - descend arc. This gives the album a coherent story, but leaves you wanting more. The album is a masterclass in electronic production. However, the more ambient nature of this album might disappoint some of his older listeners. For those with more ambient tastes though Ritual is a unique, coherent and neat musical journey that’s well worth your time, even if it leaves you wanting just a little more.
