| Music for Psychedelic Therapy | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Jon Hopkins |
| Border: | yes |
| Alt: | A pale, pastel-multicolored (mostly pink with some purple, blue, and yellow in the middle and an orange and red outline) blob in the middle of a light grey-to-white gradient rectangle, with a plain white stripe along the left side containing the artist's and album's names printed in the top-left in purple and pink respectively. |
| Released: | 12 November 2021 |
| Genre: | Electronic, ambient |
| Length: | 60:03 |
| Label: | Domino |
| Producer: | Jon Hopkins |
| Prev Title: | Singularity |
| Prev Year: | 2018 |
Music for Psychedelic Therapy is the sixth studio album by English electronic music producer Jon Hopkins, released on 12 November 2021 by Domino Recording Company.[1]
On 2 September 2021, Jon Hopkins announced the release of his sixth studio album, along with the first single "Sit Around the Fire".[2] Of the single, which features collaborations by East Forest and Ram Dass, Hopkins said:
"Sit Around the Fire" exists from one of the deep synchronicities that ushered this thing (Music for Psychedelic Therapy) into being. I was contacted by East Forest, who had spent some time with Ram Dass in Hawaii before he passed. He was given access to several lesser-heard talks from the 70s, and asked to set them to music. He sent me some starting points, including the beautiful choral vocals he recorded which open the piece. I put my headphones on and with Ram Dass' voice inside my head, I sat at the piano and improvised. What you hear is the first thing that came out - it just appeared in response to the words."[3]
The album was premiered at L-Acoustics Creations in Westlake Village, California at a Pitchblack Playback album listening session.[4] [5]
Music for Psychedelic Therapy was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 79 based on 13 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the release a 7.5 out of 10 based on a critical consensus of 14 reviews.
The Guardians Kitty Empire stated that for all its "pervasive beauty", ultimately the album "feels like only the eight-minute apex track 'Deep in the Glowing Heart' rearranges the listener's molecules in a transformational way." Pitchforks Megan Buerger was more positive, observing that when "the final hums fade and tape crackles lift, you get a glimpse at the wide-eyed resolution felt when the chemical loosens its grip." Recognising Hopkins' as a "master at suspense and release", they praised his new-found restraint on the record.
| Publication | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Magnetic | 17 | [6] | |
| MusicOMH | 28 | [7] | |
| PopMatters | 67 | [8] |