Last night my wife and I went to see Jon Hopkins at Hall One, Kings Place. Who is Jon Hopkins? What is the significance of Hall One, Kings Place?
Let me break that down for you.
Jon Hopkins according to Wikipedia:
Jon Hopkins is a British musician who writes and performs his own music, melody-led electronica. He was born and brought up in London and started playing the piano when he was five. By the age of twelve he was studying piano at London’s Royal College of Music. He has worked with Coldplay, Imogen Heap, King Creosote, David Holmes, Massive Attack, Chris Coco and Brian Eno, amongst many others.
And what’s so significant about Kings Place, Hall One, again let me leave this up to Wikipedia:
Hall One, the main concert hall is a building within a building – a box that sits on rubber springs to give it complete acoustic separation from the rest of the building.
It is built to the regular shoebox geometry – a double cube – that is considered most successful for small concert halls. Structural columns around the hall are set away from the walls to allow curtains to be drawn between the columns and the walls to modify the acoustic for speech or amplified music.
Combine those two elements and you have a jaw dropping live performance, but combine that electronica with beautiful piano compositions, Davide Rossi, a hugely talented violinist and Leo Abrahams an equally impressive guitarist and you have arrived at audio utopia.
The sort of thing you can expect from Jon Hopkins (recorded at the ICA in London earlier this year). Every beat he produces is mixed live in front of you:
If Jon Hopkins is ever touring your town or city make sure you book tickets! He’ll take you on an emotional rollercoaster through aggressive heavy beats to the most tranquil of melodies.
Want to hear something a little more soothing perhaps, turn it up real loud, sit back and enjoy.