Jon Hopkins has played 144 shows since releasing his Mercury Music Prize-nominated fourth album, Immunity.

Every show bar two has built on the eight- track collection’s first half – the upbeat dance- floor monsters made for ravers in clubs.

At Brighton’s Great Escape Festival in May his melodic and bass-heavy electronica was the only thing to match Royal Blood’s furious noise.

But six months on, to coincide with a new EP building on Immunity’s pensive second half, he’s realigned his live show.

Long-term collaborators Leo Abrahams and Davide Rossi will join Hopkins for a stripped- back show in Brighton.

It follows a similar gig at London’s Royal Festival Hall and a double- header with Nils Frahm in Berlin in October.

“The second half of Immunity is the meditative, quiet side, which in a way is more per-
sonal to me, ” he says.

“It’s slightly deeper, it is more reflective as music, and the formats are not conforming to a straight rhythm or having to make people dance.”

Hopkins is a classically-trained pianist who has been playing the instrument since he was six years old. “It is part of me, ” he adds.

“I knew I just wanted to play so I taught myself. Then I had classical lessons.”

For the four-track Asleep Versions, he went to Iceland to rework the three final tracks from Immunity plus the vocal line from Open Eye Signal.

The track Immunity is stripped back to its vocal melody. Form By Firelight was completely rerecorded using a percussive bell and harpsichord and piano.

Open Eye Signal does not keep the synth or drums but the ephemeral choral sound, which is Hopkins’ voice layered up and processed and sliced from a nine-minute take, which was used on the original.

“These tracks are continuations really. I like to look at Asleep Versions as a TV spin-off series from a movie. It’s a character who briefly appeared in the film and you were intrigued by, but who then disappeared. It is picking up those threads.”

Hopkins has collaborated with ambient music pioneer Brian Eno since 2004, written film scores including How I Live Now, contributed to Coldplay’s Viva la Vida Or Death And All His Friends, been nominated for a Mercury Music Prize for his work with King Creosote on Diamond Mine and remixed David Lynch tunes.

But it is Immunity’s success which has allowed him to explore his love for meditative music on a wider scale.

“I think this kind of thing may be closer to my heart. I have been playing piano all my life, and the thing I can play on there is very different from the tracks that became better known on the album.”

Hopkins took a hypnotherapy course aged 21. He had suffered illness and fatigue follow- ing the release of his debut album Opalescent.

He discovered Meditation As Medicine by Dharma Singh Khalsa and took its advice. Now he has become even more serious about meditation and yoga to deal with his growing workload.

“That is where Asleep Versions comes from. Really you are trying to explore the meditative area and what music can do. I’d like to think it is possible to make a piece and completely transform someone’s mood for a day and slow down the thoughts. That is what I am aiming at.”

Brighton Dome, Concert Hall, Church Street, December 4, 8pm, £18.50. Call 01273 709709.