Jon Hopkins has announced a new EP of cover songs called Piano Versions. The four-track release is due out April 16th via Domino, but the electronic mastermind has shared a song from the EP today — a cover of Roger Eno and Brian Eno’s “Wintergreen” — that you can stream below.
On their original version of “Wintergreen”, taken from their 2020 album Mixing Colours, the Eno brothers use glittery keyboard notes to build a sparse, minimalist, electronic piece that sounds like the night sky slowly coming to life. For his take on the track, Hopkins uses an actual piano to mirror each movement of the piece. It’s quiet and stirring, and by the end it wraps up with a surprisingly tender conclusion.
Technically, this is the second song Hopkins has shared from Piano Versions. Back in December, he shared a cover of Thom Yorke’s single “Dawn Chorus” which will also be featured on the EP. Rounding out the tracklist will be a rendition of “Heron” by Scottish folk musician James Yorkston and a reimagining of Luke Abbott’s moving electronic single “Modern Driveway” from 2012.
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“Piano Versions is four minimal, ambient, piano covers of songs I have loved for a long time that come from very different places,” said Hopkins in a statement. “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.”
Pre-orders for Piano Versions are currently ongoing, including a limited-edition blue 12-inch vinyl version of the EP as well as CDs and digital downloads. Check out the cover art and tracklist for it after the jump.
Piano Versions was created as the sister record to 2014’s Asleep Versions. Since releasing that EP, Hopkins has gone on to release the similarly soothing Meditations EP in 2020 and his gorgeous 2018 album Singularity. He also released a standalone solo single titled “Scene Suspended” last year as well as a collaborative track with Kelly Lee Owens called “Luminous Spaces”.
Piano Versions EP Artwork:
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Piano Versions by Jon Hopkins EP artwork cover art
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Piano Versions EP Tracklist:
01. Dawn Chorus (Thom Yorke Cover)
02. Heron (James Yorkston Cover)
03. Modern Driveway (Luke Abbott Cover)
04. Wintergreen (Roger Eno and Brian Eno Cover)
