AS THIS most hellishly viral year’s eyelids droop and it prepares to exit stage left, the masterful Jon Hopkins has brought some beautiful piano catharsis and grace for our troubled brains as he drops a cover of Thom Yorke’s “Dawn Chorus”.
The track features on Thom’s most recent solo outing, Anima. It was recorded in one take on the upright piano he’s owned since childhood, and refashions it in contemplation and shortest-day reflection.
Jon says: “I felt such bliss the first time I heard this piece – it seemed so mysterious and hypnotic, oblique but warm.
“I thought there was so much beauty in that chord sequence that there was room to explore it on the piano and see what grew from it. One day in early April when everything was particularly quiet and surreal outside, I went into my studio for the first time in weeks and ended up recording the whole thing in one take.
“I left it very raw and upfront, with just some sub-bass and vocal drones in the background. The whole thing was done in a day and was a very cathartic experience.”
It’s the first track Jon’s dropped in a straitened year since “Singing Bowl (Ascension), which premiered as part of a specially curated 24-hour long playlist for Spotify. Designed with deep meditation experiences in mind, the piece perfectly fits into Jon’s transcendent selection. Now there’s some listening.
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