British producer Jon Hopkins has long been interested in how music and other forms of art or meditation might assist a person in achieving altered states of consciousness. His last solo studio album was entitled Music for Psychedelic Therapy, its tracks bathed in hazy, dewlike static, bits of birdsong and some spoken word from New Age guru Ram Dass. Not long after making it, Hopkins was commissioned to compose an audio piece for an art exhibit involving a Dreamachine—a stroboscopic light machine that, when experienced with eyes closed, had the potential to trigger a psychedelic response (or the occasional convulsion, but enough about that!) in its user. That soundtrack sowed the seeds for RITUAL, which serves as a partner of sorts to the gauzy, ethereal Music for Psychedelic Therapy. But while it keeps in a similar vein of music to facilitate forms of transcendence, RITUAL is decidedly more active. Produced with an icier sound palette, a slightly darker edge and some percussive, rhythmic elements that were absent in the previous album, these connected pieces build and contract as they move over peaks and into valleys. Tracks such as “palace / illusion” and “transcend / lament”, both produced with musician and healing-arts practitioner Vylana, offer moments of sunny daybreak, but they’re always counterbalanced with almost sneaky, minor-key undercurrents. The latter suitably segues into “the veil”—a gothy, weighty piece that could alternately soundtrack a spiritual experience or a cinematic one—before moving toward the climactic “solar goddess return”. Electronic musicians often speak of their compositions or DJ mixes as sonic journeys. Without explicitly doing so himself, Hopkins’ albums actually are.