Following the recent release of his cover of “Dawn Chorus”, today Jon Hopkins shares the news of his new EP, Piano Versions which is due for digital release on 16th April 2021, with a physical release on 2nd July 2021.
Presented as the sister record to 2014’s Asleep Versions, Piano Versions is a collection of ambient piano cover versions. The songs on the EP, originally by Roger & Brian Eno, Thom Yorke, Luke Abbott and James Yorkston are presented in a completely new context to their initial form. On these versions, Hopkins used his upright piano as the centrepiece of the EP, whilst recording the ambient, environmental elements around it.
“Piano Versions is four minimal, ambient piano covers of songs I have loved for a long time but that come from very different places. It seems to me that melody is universal and the ones that I really connect to shine out irrespective of genre or context, whether from techno, folk or whatever. I loved the simplicity of having my old upright piano be the centre of a whole record for the first time. But the importance of letting the outside world into the recordings is as present for me as ever, so there are layers of incidental noise, bird song, the sound of someone washing up in the studio kitchen – whatever was going on outside my room is included and even accentuated. I want people to hear not just the recordings but to feel how it felt to be there and make them. It was a deep experience.”
Side A
1. Dawn Chorus
2. Heron
SIDE B
1. Modern Driveway
2. Wintergreen
Presented as the sister record to 2014’s Asleep Versions, Piano Versions is a collection of ambient piano cover versions. The songs on the EP, originally by Roger & Brian Eno, Thom Yorke, Luke Abbott and James Yorkston are presented in a completely new context to their initial form. On these versions, Hopkins used his upright piano as the centrepiece of the EP, whilst recording the ambient, environmental elements around it.
“Piano Versions is four minimal, ambient piano covers of songs I have loved for a long time but that come from very different places. It seems to me that melody is universal and the ones that I really connect to shine out irrespective of genre or context, whether from techno, folk or whatever. I loved the simplicity of having my old upright piano be the centre of a whole record for the first time. But the importance of letting the outside world into the recordings is as present for me as ever, so there are layers of incidental noise, bird song, the sound of someone washing up in the studio kitchen – whatever was going on outside my room is included and even accentuated. I want people to hear not just the recordings but to feel how it felt to be there and make them. It was a deep experience.”
Side A
1. Dawn Chorus
2. Heron
SIDE B
1. Modern Driveway
2. Wintergreen