Jon Hopkins: Asleep Versions (Domino, 2014)

November 9, 2014 at 5:19 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

EP of ambient versions of tracks from Hopkins’ triumphant Immunity LP from last year. This focuses on the more meditative side of the album, with soft vocals and drifting pianos. The EP starts out by revisiting the album’s title track with Hopkins’ previous collaborator King Creosote singing fragile, folky vocals over piano and softly pounding beats. “Form By Firelight” has a subdued beat and vocals which are sometimes played backwards, and is probably the best place to start. “Breathe This Air” starts with calm pianos and little else, but gradually builds to shimmering synths, well-timed percussive bursts, and flakes of manipulated vocals. The EP’s final cut turns album standout “Open Eye Signal” into an 11-minute epic barely recognizable from its original form, starting out very still for a few minutes, then timestretching out into the illuminated night sky, and ending with slow solemn piano notes, light years away from the clipped electronic beats of the song’s original version.

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