Spiritual liberation, profound ceremony, journey as inspiration, primal energy: We are no longer in Kansas, but in Jon Hopkins’ hotel room somewhere else in the world.

The English musician and producer was once an ad hoc assistant to Brian Eno, David Holmes and Coldplay, among others, but has also been releasing solo albums for 20 years that represent the epitome of immersive electronic experiences.

Chris Martin once said that if Hopkins had been a classical musician and composer in the 18th or 19th century, he would have been the talk of the palaces of Europe. Is he in some ways a musician out of time? “I think I’m here quite deliberately, doing what I do, for anyone who’s listening now. Mind you, that’s a great quote from Chris.”

Music was always moving for Hopkins: in his house, in his head and, from the age of 12, in his hands: as a junior he began studying piano at the Royal College of Music in London. During his five years there he won a competition to play Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. A career as a professional pianist was up for debate, but Hopkins was completely captivated by acid house, grunge, hardcore and electronica groups such as Seefeel and Plaid.

With the prize money from a piano competition, he bought a Roland synthesizer and at 18 he began performing with various musicians. Before his 20th birthday he signed a low-budget record deal – but after releasing two solo albums, the unsuccessful Opalescent and Contact Note, he realized that the life of a commercially ambitious musician with the associated pressure from the record company was not for him.

He then moved into music production, working with Eno on projects such as Coldplay’s 2008 album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. What started as an invitation to spend a day in the studio turned into a year, and he was later asked to DJ as the opening act for the album’s accompanying tour.

The 45-year-old seems like such a distinguished guy that it’s hard to imagine him enjoying such loud stadium experiences. “Yes, the scale of the spectacle…” he says, shaking his head slightly. “I love going to things like that, as long as I don’t have to do anything myself. In a way, it’s a whole new art form.”

“What I love about Coldplay shows is that you don’t go to their shows to hold back. They’ve found this brilliant way of doing tours like this where everyone is having fun and the schedule isn’t crazy because there are long breaks between intense touring periods.

“In my experience, they keep the system running smoothly. I look back over the years of playing a lot of shows with them every week and there are great moments and memories. Their shows are very inclusive, crazy, beautiful events and their main messages are all things that really resonate with me and I implement them in my own way.”

Hopkins has cautiously started making music for himself again. “For me, there was never really a barrier, never a choice between the music I make and who I am. It’s just always been that way, and so you surrender to it, you’re at its mercy and you enjoy it.”

He says his 2018 album Singularity is “probably my most digestible mainstream album. If you look at this album closely, it’s a reflection of my commercial experiences performing my previous album Immunity, which was very successful, and my desire to give people a big show and make it as good as possible.”

Hopkins speaks of “digestible” and “commercial experiences” with raised eyebrows, partly in surprise, partly with a shrug. Wealth and fame were never among his ambitions. “When I made Singularity, I didn’t feel commercialized. I definitely felt a lot of pressure, but I was still making music that I loved, music that I believed in.”

“Long instrumentals on the album, such as Everything Connected and Luminous Beings, which are each over 10 minutes long, are not exactly chart-worthy – although it did make the UK top 10, which was pretty fun.

“Maybe it started to seem more commercial when I was doing so many shows. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to do it for many reasons, but after show number 150 or so, when you’re playing the same songs over and over again and trying to play them in new ways, it became quite exhausting.

“I didn’t really want to be an artist in life. My true love is writing music, but then I found a way to make the performances work and I kind of fell into it. I know some musicians who say that when they’re on stage, everything makes sense to them. For me, the equivalent of that is writing: it gives life meaning; that’s what my purpose feels like.”

The big shows and huge audiences that accompanied the success of Singularity brought back the goosebumps, and so Hopkins turned back to “looking inward” – which, he suggests, is the origin of Music for Psychedelic Therapy, his 2021 album. It is, he says, “the absolute representation of who I am now, what interests me, what my inner world is like.”

“But I also feel like it’s more about a general mood… It’s not a normal album; it doesn’t sound like one. Again, as uncomfortable as it is, I have no control over it; it just has to be accepted.”

Which brings us to his new album, Ritual. While Music for Psychedelic Therapy references Rainbow Dome Musick, Steve Hillage’s spiritually-infused 1979 album about his drug withdrawal, Ritual is more clinically elegant and forward-thinking. Hopkins calls it “a kinetic counterpart” to Music for Psychedelic Therapy.

“I spent ages trying to figure out what two words you would use if you had to describe ritual as something or for someone. At one point I thought: is it an electronic symphony? Yes, it has strong ambient elements, it has shamanic drumming, it has piano sections, but I know it’s not in a genre that I can easily categorize. I’m not saying it’s a new art form, but it’s more like you call it something after the fact.”

Ritual is a sublime work, an ambient mix in a darkened room that Hopkins says could be used to accompany people on experiences with psychoactive drugs that are undertaken “not for recreational purposes, but for self-development or recovery.” He doesn’t prescribe how the music should be used, he says. Ritual is there “to develop a form, a plan for the future.”

Hopkins laughs at what he just said. “My managers always say, ‘Oh, this has huge potential,’ and while I like to think of Ritual as the beginning of something, like a seed being planted, it’s nothing like previous work.”

That’s something to celebrate, right? “It’s pure,” he replies. “There’s no attempt to do anything that’s part of current pop culture, and there’s no reference to dance music. I feel like I’ve given up on any attempt to fit in anywhere. And yes, even though it has commercial consequences, who cares?”

“I’ll be working behind the scenes with other people on things that are much more in tune with what’s actually being heard… What I do is never mainstream, but it’s part of the process of moving away from audience expectations. Who knows what I’ll do next? That’s all part of the fun.”

The ritual is triggered by Domino Records on Friday, August 30