Perfect for much more than just psychedelic therapy

Jon Hopkins’s Music for Psychedelic Therapy was released on November 12th. Though Hopkins, who is from England, was classically trained as a composer, he also writes electronic music and film scores and has received nominations for both a Grammy Award and Mercury Prize. Hopkins’s interesting career in music, which included being a gifted child pianist and electronic music producer, led him to create Music for Psychedelic Therapy after producing music in the realm of meditation and ambient music. 

The first piece on the album, aptly named “Welcome,” starts with glistening synths, ascending in pitch. It feels like entering a mystical portal to another dimension, also probably what it feels like to enter into psychedelic therapy, for which the album was named. The rest of the piece follows with bells and expanding harmonies and sounds very relaxing and sort of mysterious, perfect for anything from psychedelic therapy to meditation or trying to fall asleep. 

Hopkins took a trip to the Tayos Caves, Ecuador for the next three pieces of the album. Relax to the simple, comforting sounds of constant rushing water, birds and low, warm synths for “Tayos Caves, Ecuador i” and parts two and three. 

“Love Flows Over Us In Prismatic Waves” is resemblant to its name. The music personifies how it would feel if we could see energy flowing over and through something, like smoke from burning incense. It picks up in the second section, with a squarer-sounding effect over the synths, creating more movement in the piece. The piece builds up into a wave of crystalline sound that slowly washes away beneath the sound of birds chirping in the distance.

The next piece comes in directly after titled, “Deep In The Glowing Heart.” The effects of this music sound like the whirring of a spacecraft engine, and the techno-sounding synths make the piece sound even more futuristic and sci-fi-esque. 

Ram Dass and East Forest join Jon Hopkins for the last piece called “Sit Around The Fire.” Over ambient vocals and synths is a speech about internal growth. This piece is perfect for meditation, capturing the listener’s attention with its wisdom and relaxing them into a peaceful state of mind with lovely, soft piano harmony and ambiance. Subtly and ingeniously, Hopkins builds the intensity of the piece as the speech continues. The music has a nostalgic ring to it and brings to mind a sense of connection, perhaps to nature or to humanity.

Music for Psychedelic Therapy is not only perfect for a deep thinking session, studying or meditation, but it calls to mind an appreciation of nature and connection, and of course, would provide very suitable background music for psychedelic therapy.