Abandon Window – Jon Hopkins
It’s not often that electronic music works for me but when it does it’s often a true deathstrike. Such is the case with Immunity, the newest record from Jon Hopkins.
My only previous experience with Hopkins was his work with King Creosote on the wonderful Diamond Mine album two years ago. That record combined the spare intimacy of folk music with the desolate depth of electronica, occasionally with breathtaking results.
With Immunity, Hopkins delivers a tiny sliver of that same sound but packages it together with a stunning array of different sound textures, beats, and emotional registers. The glitchy “Open Eye Signal” invites frantic dancing, while “Breathe This Air” is far more seductive – melding together a throbbing beat with the delicate application of single piano strikes.
However, the true emotional core of this album is on the softer pieces. Of those, “Abandon Window” is an exercise in perfect restraint–built around the sparest of piano notes and an ever-so-gently rising wave of supporting harmonics. It’s about as pure and beautiful of a song as you can imagine.
And yet, it still can’t possibly compare to the incredible, impossible perfection of the title track. At just under 10 minutes long, and with no dramatic flourishes or moments of release, there is nothing here to suck you in directly. However, as it slowly unfolds you can sense the passing of years, perhaps even of lifetimes. Once again, a very simple piano line establishes the structure of the song. But the true soul is doled out through the impossible-to-decipher chorus sung by King Creosote, whose voice perfectly clarifies the otherworldliness of the experience.
This is certainly the best electronic album of 2013, and I’m struggling to make an argument for anything being better so far in this decade.