Jon Hopkins interview on his process for the new ambient album

It’s sad but:

no story, no attention, no sales

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Yeah unfortunately I don’t get the impression that musicradar as a publication is focused on in-depth perspective/artistry vs the sales side. I also think the interviewee has very little control over what the article angle is, what’s pull-quoted, etc in the end. For any fans, I really enjoyed this interview which is a few years old

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My old patron John Kennedy interviews Hopkins and digs into the multitracks of three pieces on Hopkins’ new album for episode 86 of the Tape Notes podcast:

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I don’t know, now that I have children, I find myself watching other parents with their children very intently when I’m at the park, cafe, or grocery store.

When I see a newborn baby I turn into an old lady “awww, precious! Congratulations!” etc…

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Yeah idk I’m interested in hearing people’s experiences with all three of those things, but I am a parent who’s been known to lose an evening or two listening to peoples datura trip reports on YouTube.

Either way I think the marketing comes down to his team having to justify the radical departure from his previous works.

I find Jon Hopkins interesting and I think he’s mostly genuine with the whole psychedelic thing although it can come off somewhat narcissistic and cringy at times.

If people are interested in hearing more here is an episode of tape notes:

In which he talks more about his trip to Ecuador and breaks down some of the sounds on his new album. He solos alot of different elements and talks about building up cohesive “living” sounds/environments by adding elements together.

Thanks for the insight and the link,… it was just posted 2h ago by @PeterHanes , 2 post above :point_up_2: :point_up_2:

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In my excitement to share I skipped right over it. NOW WHO LOOKS LIKE A FOOL?!? (Spoiler alert: it’s me)

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I always enjoyed his music. It also proves I don’t need 90% of this gear I have piled up everywhere.

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Hell yeah. It’s all about the artist, not the gear. Autechre made an entire track on a Roland PMA-5, for example – it looks terrible haha. I too have enjoyed Jopkins music in the past, and I’m saving this next one up for tomorrow’s work listening.

the intellectual debate in this thread aside, it’s an absolutely phenomenal album with more than a few really great moments. it sounds like a warm hug to me and the sense of space is visceral.

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Is this what we’re going with now? Im in

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Ha, I love truncating things. Me and my gf have a whole language made up of them.

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I don’t really have any modular synths, drum machines or any of that stuff - it’s all really Ableton

Maybe we need to donate him some gear.

Not super into his music, bit too polished/pristine sounding for me. Like it a bit more rugged.

Also eurorack experiments.

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It’s kind of meh. I waned to like it but it didn’t really inspire. I like my ambient more… immersive.

Same, but in all fairness he does say that moog one was very central which is a serious piece of hardware

True. I’m not saying I don’t need any of it. I just don’t need 5 samplers, you know what I mean? I remember how much music I used to make back when I first discovered FL Studio. It was amazing. This was like 2004. I just appreciate the way he works and I like the final product.

Totally. I was most prolific using FL Studio alone (around same timeframe as you) and probably had the most creative ideas, but the worst engineering!

I enjoy having a hybrid setup but always dream of simplifying down to a bare minimum setup and learning everything inside out (which is very hard even with a few select pieces, DAW, and limited time for music). I am sure most of the music I like most was produced mostly in Ableton and ITB.

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I found some time to listen to the freely available ones on Bandcamp. Some of it is very good, especially for deep listening or while doing other things. I particularly like the bassier moments. On the other hand, it’s not all that different to the thousands of YouTube channels dedicated to such sounds. Still, I applaud him for doing what he wants and visiting some awesome places along the way.

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