Jon Hopkins shares new single “Forever Held” created in collaboration with NASA

“Forever Held” featured in title track of Coldplay’s new album Moon Music
Contributes to Charli XCX’s Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat with The 1975
Announces first large-scale listening experience of RITUAL at London’s EartH Theatre – now sold out
Performing at London’s Southbank Centre and Manchester’s Aviva Studios alongside Aaron and Bryce Dessner as part of film screenings of All of This Unreal Time starring Cillian Murphy

Photo credit: Imogene Barron \

 
Today, Jon Hopkins shares a brand-new track, “Forever Held”. A full orchestral piece with string arrangements by Icelandic multi-instrumentalist Ólafur Arnalds, it is an emotive and deeply peaceful piece of cinematic music which touches on themes of our Earth and its context within space.

NASA JPL collaborated with Jon Hopkins to compose the song “Forever Held” for Space for Earth, which is NASA’s first immersive experience open to the public commissioned by NASA and located at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. The song was inspired by letters written by NASA Creative Director and artist Erica Bernhardduring the creation of the installation. These
letters, love letters from Earth to Space, ended in the phrase “Forever enveloped in your gravity”. These words inspired Jon’s frequent collaborator, Rick Holland, to name the song “Forever Held”.

Talking about the music, Hopkins says: “I took this opportunity to create a full orchestral piece. I wanted to make something timeless that would transmit the feeling of being ‘held’ by the Earth. I was thinking about the fragility and power of our planet, and of the human race’s role in its own destiny.”

Watch the video for “Forever Held” here.

Stream “Forever Held” here.

Erica Bernhard adds: “Space is not merely the backdrop to human existence, but a living, breathing dimension. There are invisible communications happening between Earth and the NASA satellites that observe our planet. The view from space offers a profound shift in perspective – astronauts call this the overview effect. Hopkins’ compositions capture that shift – infusing sound with the expansiveness of space while grounding us in the essence and rhythms of life on Earth. His soundscapes act as a bridge between these realms, translating the awe and wonder of space and Earth into a sonic and immersive journey that asks us to consider our place in the universe and our responsibility to the planet.”

The music video for “Forever Held”, created and directed by Erica Bernhard, displays the range of her art-science studio COVALENT Collaboratory. It is a visual evolution of the love letters between Space and Earth – humans being an inextricable part of these interconnected systems. It poetically envelops NASA imagery and data onto two motion-captured dancers: the ‘Space’ character comprised of NASA James Webb Space Telescope while the ‘Earth’ character is wrapped in NASA satellite imagery of the Earth at night, as they perform their eternal dance.

After the collaboration between NASA JPL/Erica Bernhard and Jon Hopkins in the creation of “Forever Held”, the song has continued to evolve, grow and live outside of the installation. The song, stills from its music video, the original letters and pieces of the Space for Earth installation, have been engraved and encoded onto a NanoFiche disk which will be sent to the moon as part of the Lunar Codex via NASA CLPS.

Ahead of its release today, Coldplay used “Forever Held” to open their new album Moon Music (on its title track “Moon Music”) and began their Pyramid-headlining slot at this year’s Glastonbury with the song.

Hopkins also featured on the latest iteration of Charli XCX’s Brat, contributing to “I might say something stupid” with The 1975 on Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat.

Jon Hopkins recently released his latest studio album RITUAL a 41-minute ceremonial epic built from cavernous subs, hypnotic drumming and transcendent melodic interplay. Having premiered the album to several thousand people at collective listening experiences around the globe in immersive audio ahead of its release, Hopkins is pleased to announce the first large-scale event at London’s EartH Theatre next month which has already sold out. There will be a live piano performance and a Q&A with Hopkins and his collaborator 7RAYS.

Additionally, Jon will be performing at London’s Southbank Centre with Aaron and Bryce Dessner on December 6th as part of the London premiere of All of This Unreal Time featuring Oscar award winning actor Cillian Murphy. They will also be performing at Manchester’s Aviva Studios on December 7th. The film is written by Max Porter and directed by Aoife McArdle, The Dessners and Hopkins composed the film’s soundtrack. Further information for London  and Manchester.