Last month, Jon Hopkins announced that he would be the latest artist to put together a Late Night Tales compilation. His set – "music that I have been listening to for years, free from the constraints of a club setting or from trying to stick to one genre," says Hopkins – includes tracks from Nils Frahm, School Of Seven Bells, Health, A Winged Victory For The Sullen and Rick Holland among others and was mixed "using original sound design, pivot notes, and often recording new synth
or piano parts to link things together," the producer explains. Opening it up is ‘Sleepers Beat Theme’ by the composer Ben Lukas Boysen. It’s clear why it appealed: it opens with closely-mic’ed piano chords, redolent of moments of Hopkins’ own Immunity, which go on to underpin a gently surging, textured second half, hung off leaping harp notes. We’ve kindly been given a first play of the track – listen above – with Hopkins telling us of it: "I encountered this on the soundtrack to a short film I contributed music to about the Trans-Siberian Express, called Sleepers’ Beat, which was directed by a fantastic Russian film-maker called Anastasia Kirillova. I thought it was such a calming and sensitive piece, and one that sounded to me like the beginning of something."
Hopkins’ Late Night Tales is out on March 1 on double-vinyl, CD and download. Pre-order it here and catch him headlining Brixton Academy on April 24, with support from East India Youth, while our latest interview, discussing last year’s Asleep Versions EP, is here.
