What Inspired Me

Ground-crawling heavy bass, brain-hacking intricate glitches, and tender yet frantic build-ups. In 2013, Jon Hopkins' Open Eye Signal literally shattered club floors worldwide, dragging him into a grueling world tour of over 165 shows.

However, skip ahead 11 years. In 2024, what he is playing is not a heavy four-on-the-floor kick, but strings that gently melt into the silence of space—music for a NASA space exhibition, and a time capsule sent to the lunar surface.

Why did he abandon the frenzy of the floor and head for the “altar of silence”? Behind this transformation lay an inevitable drama brought about by burnout, spiritual exploration, and a certain commissioned work.

1. The Starting Point of a Musical Prodigy—From Pianist to Electronic Music

Jon Hopkins was born in London. Showing musical talent from an early age, he attended the Saturday program at the Royal College of Music at age 16. There, he entered a concerto competition playing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, and won.

Ironically, however, that experience distanced him from the world of classical piano.

“I had never been so nervous in my life as I was for that big concert. I realized I didn't need to feel that way.”

He reflected in a later interview, noting that he stopped performing in classical concerts afterward. Instead, he turned to electronic music at 17—bringing the musical foundation cultivated through five years of piano training into the introspective space of the studio.

This episode from his youth might be directly connected to the exhaustion he later felt when performing massive live sets in front of 20,000 people at Glastonbury. While he hasn't explicitly linked the two, it suggests an early sensitivity to the nervous strain of performing before large audiences.

Ironically, by escaping to the electronic music world to avoid public performance, he found himself once again standing in front of massive crowds. At least in the early stages of touring, though, this was a voluntary choice, not a mandate. Looking back, he noted, “Immunity changed my career. I jumped from 500-capacity venues to 5,000 all at once,” adding that after finishing a record, he was “happy to go around the world playing it.” Furthermore, he described his label, Domino, as one that “happily allows artists to take as much time as they want and never rushes them,” indicating no external pressure. As a result of being drawn into the gravity of his own success, he ended up taking on the same kind of exhaustion he once experienced in classical concerts—only on a vastly larger scale.

2. An IDM Masterpiece—Open Eye Signal and Immunity (2013)

Sublimating his Royal College of Music piano techniques into the grammar of electronic music, and following collaborations with Brian Eno and Coldplay, film scoring, and a joint work with King Creosote (Diamond Mine, Mercury Prize-nominated), Hopkins released his fourth album, Immunity, in 2013.

The track Open Eye Signal is an 8-minute epic, with the main riff alone taking four months to craft using a 1979 Korg MS-20. The pleasure of its meticulous build-up and release achieved a high-dimensional balance between club music functionality and IDM experimentation.

The album Immunity was nominated for a Mercury Prize and later selected in Pitchfork's “50 Best IDM Albums of All Time,” solidifying its reputation as an electronica masterpiece. Mixmag praised it as “an album of organic techno and exquisite mini-symphonies.” The latter half of the album features ambient-leaning tracks, showing that the pendulum swing from rhythm to silence was already at the core of his musical identity.

However, this success came at a heavy price.

3. The Exhaustion of Live Performances—Late Nights, Jet Lag, and the Adrenaline Cycle

In terms of musical operation, the Immunity tour live sets were primarily DJ-style, controlling tracks in real-time using devices like Kaoss Pads. The scale and production of the show, however, were entirely different. Combined with an immersive, massive production featuring a team of LED hula-hoop performers, massive projections, strobes, and lasers, he reached the point of headlining the Park Stage at Glastonbury in front of 20,000 people.

Moreover, the album production itself had already drained him. Hopkins recalled on his website, “By the time I finished making Immunity, I was pretty burnt out musically.” On top of that came a tour of over 165 shows.

The core of his exhaustion wasn't the technical burden of playing, but the destruction of his biological rhythm—constantly releasing maximum adrenaline in clubs and festivals late at night, compounded by endless jet lag.

“Between putting out maximum adrenaline in the middle of the night and constant jet lag, I lost the ability to rest properly,” he stated.

It’s hard to deny that the nervous strain of large-scale performances he experienced at his 16-year-old competition had compounded once again on the 20,000-capacity stages.

4. Burnout and Spiritual Exploration—Meditation, and DMT

Faced with this exhaustion, Hopkins spoke to Billboard magazine: “The exhaustion reached its limit. I felt I couldn't go on like this, and threw myself deeply into Transcendental Meditation ™ for a month.”

Before this, he had practiced Kundalini meditation (a yoga-derived technique combining breathing, mantras, and poses to induce altered states) and self-hypnosis (inducing deep relaxation, which he used to ease touring tension). However, triggered by the drain of the Immunity tour, he transitioned to TM, making it a daily routine.

What is Transcendental Meditation ™? A technique where one silently repeats a mantra to quiet the mind and naturally enter a state of deep rest. Unlike the previous two techniques, it involves no physical movement or breath control and can simply be done sitting in a chair. It requires learning from a certified instructor.

Then, at the age of 35, backed by years of meditation practice, he experienced DMT for the first time.

What is DMT (Dimethyltryptamine)? A powerful natural hallucinogen found in plants and the main active compound in Ayahuasca. Within a short 10-minute trip, it is said to bring profound transformations unattainable by normal consciousness, often described as “the most intense psychedelic experience.”

“That experience changed everything,” he reflects. “As I repeatedly experienced expanded states of consciousness, it was only natural that the destination of my music would change.”

5. Music Descending as Autosuggestion—The Subconscious and the Creative Process

Let's pause here to touch upon Hopkins' creative style itself.

Across multiple interviews, he has consistently stated:

“I plan nothing. I intuitively follow a single thread, and only realize what the song is about after the fact.” “There was a strange intelligence behind the process that didn't feel like it came from me.” “When I listen back to things I made years ago, I surprise myself, wondering what that sound is. Most of the sounds I can't explain how they came to exist.”

This creative style is deeply connected to the act of setting the conscious ego aside through meditation or DMT to draw music from the subconscious. Regarding TM, he noted it is “very helpful for drawing out ideas drifting deep in the subconscious.”

Here, the name of a certain painter comes to mind: the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862–1944). After experiencing spiritual visions during séances in 1906, she began painting abstract works, predating Kandinsky as a pioneer of abstract art. Creating works under the belief that she was “commissioned to paint by higher entities,” her sensation of receiving something beyond the conscious ego strongly resonates with Hopkins' narrative.

Of course, the frameworks are completely different between af Klint, who believed in spiritual channeling, and Hopkins, who discusses the subconscious within the contexts of meditation and neuroscience. Yet, the structural experience of “when conscious planning is let go, something seemingly from the outside guides the work” is strikingly similar.

When tracing Hopkins' evolution, it’s difficult to deny the possibility that this wasn't merely a shift in musical direction, but an inevitable outcome of a highly suggestible individual deepening his access to the subconscious through meditation and psychedelics.

Official Website of the Hilma af Klint Foundation

6. Deepening Introspection—Singularity (2018)

Emerging from this period of introspection was his fifth album, Singularity (2018). Incorporating tracks featuring choirs, it further deepened the rhythm-to-silence pendulum swing already evident in Immunity, now framed within a more psychedelic context. Rather than a definitive departure, it can be heard as an extension of Immunity with intensified introspection. Hopkins describes the album's structure as mirroring the arc of a psychedelic experience—from chaos to clarity.

“I made this album to be listened to in its entirety. It’s a resistance to the streaming era's habit of immediately skipping to the next song.”

Nominated for a Grammy, the album cracked the UK Top 10, dragging him once again into a tour of hundreds of shows. By late 2019, sleep deprivation and exhaustion reached their limits once more. “If it weren't for COVID, I might have kept going a bit longer. But I felt like the universe took me by the hand,” he said.

7. Towards Complete Ambient—Choosing Music Over Sales

Considering the dancefloor fanbase that followed him up to Singularity, his next two albums represented a kind of farewell. Hopkins completely abandoned beats, steering toward pure ambient works. The chart numbers honestly reflected the cost of this shift—but Hopkins himself didn't care. True to his words, “I made it without thinking about commercial success at all,” the success of Immunity and its aftermath had already afforded him the financial and mental freedom to create exactly the music he desired.

Music for Psychedelic Therapy (2021)

The forced halt of the pandemic, an expedition to the Tayos Caves in Ecuador, and his involvement with high-precision ketamine therapy. These elements converged, leading Hopkins to produce his first entirely drumless album.

Clocking in at over an hour, the album is designed to match the average duration of a ketamine trip, and upon release, it was immediately utilized by therapists and clients in actual psychedelic therapy sessions.

What is Psychedelic Therapy? Unlike the gradual process of letting go of desires in Zen meditation, this is a more rapid, medical approach. Using substances like ketamine or psilocybin (the active compound in magic mushrooms), it induces altered states of consciousness unattainable normally within a short time, aiming to resolve trauma and shift self-awareness. Before release, Hopkins had already designed musical experiences for Imperial College London's psilocybin clinical trials, and this album serves as an extension of that work.

On the UK Album Chart, it peaked at No. 30 and charted for just two weeks, a significant drop compared to Singularity's No. 6. However, beyond the charts, the work was vibrantly alive—receiving so much feedback from therapists and users that Hopkins created a dedicated trip report page on his website.

What is notable here is that eliminating drums was likely more than just a musical choice. The Immunity and Singularity style of meticulously placing sounds over a complex rhythmic grid requires immense time and logical decision-making. By letting go of that and transitioning to ambient focused on sustained notes and drones, the nature of production fundamentally changes—sound is no longer bound by a rhythmic grid but follows the flow of intuition. “I didn't do any conscious planning on this record,” Hopkins reflected. The goal of making music for meditation, the ambient format, and a creative stance of trusting the subconscious—these three elements aligned perfectly for the first time during this period.

RITUAL (August 2024)

Originating as a commissioned piece for Dreamachine in 2022, it evolved by late 2023 into a 41-minute, 8-chapter opus. Beginning with “altar” and quietly concluding with “nothing is lost,” Hopkins intends for it to be experienced as one continuous piece (the 8-track split was a label request). It is a ceremonial masterwork woven with cavernous sub-bass, hypnotic drums, and ascending melodies.

The starting point was a commission for Dreamachine in London—an immersive installation that induces visual hallucinations behind closed eyes using stroboscopic light. In an interview with Ableton, Hopkins noted:

“By its very nature, it had to be quite warm and accessible.”

The constraint of designing an immersive guided experience brought a new warmth to his music, sublimating into RITUAL.

Chart-wise, it peaked at No. 51 in the UK, dropping further than Music for Psychedelic Therapy. Yet, RA Magazine praised it as “masterfully crafted, sharpening the senses and encouraging introspection,” while Under the Radar gave it an 8.5/10. “Commissioned work opens new doors for an artist”—music designed to guide the internal experiences of others through the Dreamachine ultimately elevated into his most deeply personal art.

8. Encounter with Post-Classical—Collaborations with Icelandic Composers

Following RITUAL, Hopkins' ambient works entered a new phase. Through collaborations with Icelandic post-classical composers, he shifted his affinity from drone and electronic-based introspective ambient toward symphonic, sweeping musical landscapes driven by strings and piano.

Forever Held — with Ólafur Arnalds (October 2024)

Released roughly two months after RITUAL, this single was co-written with Ólafur Arnalds, an Icelandic multi-instrumentalist and composer internationally acclaimed for his delicate fusion of neo-classical and electronics.

This piece was explicitly written for Space for Earth, NASA’s first immersive public exhibition at its Washington D.C. headquarters. It is spatial music designed to evoke the “Overview Effect”—the overwhelming realization of Earth's beauty and fragility experienced by astronauts viewing it from space.

If Music for Psychedelic Therapy and RITUAL were ambient works grounded in drones, Forever Held takes a step further. Arnalds' rich string arrangements expand entirely, evoking a majestic image with a cosmic scale and warm embrace. Maintaining ambient silence while offering emotional release through full orchestral resonance, this track stands as one of the defining masterpieces of his ambient career.

The waveform data of this song was engraved onto a NanoFiche disk and will be permanently preserved on the lunar surface as part of NASA's Artemis program.

Interestingly, we see the recurrence of his connection with Coldplay. In 2008, Hopkins played an original track for Chris Martin during the Viva la Vida sessions. That track, “Light Through the Veins,” was adopted as the intro for “Life in Technicolor,” setting the stage for Coldplay's defining album. Sixteen years later in 2024, Forever Held opens Coldplay's album Moon Music. Hopkins' career has repeatedly been mirrored in the massive pop lens of Coldplay at crucial turning points. If the 2008 track was the fresh ambient of an electronica up-and-comer, the 2024 track is the cosmic-scale silence achieved after undergoing burnouts, meditation, psychedelic experiences, and profound commissioned works.

Wilding — Co-Soundtrack with Biggi Hilmars (2026)

His journey of transformation continues to cross paths with new external contexts in 2026, marking his participation in the soundtrack for the documentary film Wilding. The film chronicles the 18-year “rewilding” project to restore natural ecosystems to a ruined farm in Sussex, UK.

While Hopkins is credited as the main co-producer, this isn't a full-fledged solo album but a joint project with Icelandic film composer Biggi Hilmars. The 13-track (31-minute) compilation includes many solo tracks by Hilmars, indicating Hopkins' involvement is partial. Moreover, the reuse of material from the 2013 Immunity era—such as track 4, “New Land”—reveals this work as an extension of his commissioned (film scoring) repertoire.

Musically, the division of labor is clear: Hopkins handles electronic processing and ethereal synths, while Hilmars predominantly provides dramatic orchestral textures like strings and piano. For the “Wilding Theme,” the lead sound Hopkins used is actually his own voice, heavily processed to sound like an ancient woodwind instrument. This alien electronic acoustic merges with Hilmars' neo-classical majesty, lending a unique depth to the nature documentary's atmosphere.

It can be seen as a work that practically deepens the post-classical affinity he established since Forever Held, channeled through the functional format of film scoring.

Conclusion: Music as “Medicine”, “Space”, and “Ritual”

Eleven years have passed since the glitches of Open Eye Signal shook dancefloors globally. Today, Jon Hopkins makes music in a place entirely antithetical to floor frenzy.

Yet, tracing his path reveals this wasn't a contradiction, but an inevitability. Burnout called for meditation; meditation opened the door to DMT; psychedelic experiences rewrote the purpose of his music; and commissioned works unlocked new expressive horizons.

“Music is medicine, space, and ritual.” Deepening this conviction, he continues to quietly expand the range of his music—from the dancefloor to the altar, from Earth to the cosmos.

And now, through his collaborations with Icelandic post-classical composers, Hopkins' music is undergoing yet another transformation. How will the introspection cultivated through electronic music grammar merge and deepen with the symphonic majesty woven by strings and piano? Looking back, the aforementioned painter Hilma af Klint also described her work as directly translating images descending from the universe through spiritual rituals. It's highly possible that such an affinity influenced Hopkins' participation in the NASA project. Will he continue to explore the realms of even more deeply autosuggestive inspiration? Only time will tell.