Ritual

It may not be fun, exactly, but taken in the right context, RITUAL is an album experience unlike any other. It’s not for the club, and it is absolutely not meant to be broken up and distributed into playlists, but it has a purpose and a direction of its own, and it leaves the listener to decide what to use it for for themselves. With this album, Jon Hopkins continues to push the boundaries of what electronic composition can be.

It's an album that shows, beyond any doubt, that Jon Hopkins is a singular electronic talent not bound by either his past or expectations. [Oct 2024, p.101]

Jon Hopkins’ compositional abilities are in fine form throughout. His views on his work are modest: “I have no idea what I’m doing when I’m composing. It is a mindless act. I’m following a thread, a trail.” Yet, Hopkins also has a fine ear for nuance and a natural sense of dynamics, making the music on RITUAL deliberately create an emotional experience for the listener.

The result is an ingeniously crafted album that, under the right conditions, heightens the senses and inspires heartfelt reflection.

Ritual is enchanting and transportive. [Sep 2024, p.84]

The piece has a propulsive quality, even if it isn't travelling at a danceable BPM, and at 41 minutes, it never lags. It's also very listenable, its infinite aural nuances — blips and bloops, pounds and crackles, hisses and animal sounds — offering a constant source of delight, calm and exploration.

Caught between abandon and damming the stream of consciousness, Hopkins’ work seems to require a commitment from the listener that is not always reciprocated. It’s often beautiful passages feel somehow manipulative. But, when he lets loose, Ritual becomes, for 13 minutes, extraordinary.

It's still hard to listen to his more ambient material without comparing it to the sweeping rush of his dance music, which arrives at some truly staggering highs. Still, Ritual is an engaging experience that succeeds at transporting the listener and replenishing the soul.

Ritual holds down his rock-star impulses and ties the album to a specific time and place, settling for the merely pretty instead of the all-consuming. Richly textured and carefully composed, Ritual is an impressive composition, but for Hopkins it feels rote.

As trips go, Ritual is congenial and diverting rather than transformative. But if it doesn’t quite open the portals of your inner world, it’s still worth taking.

This is deluxe lava-lamp music, pleasantly pretty at worst, hypnotically beautiful at best. [Sep 2024, p.33]