Jon Hopkins has gifted us with a little easter egg from his most recent LP, Immunity— a tight little rework of the stunning song “Breathe This Air.” I am delighted to hear that spacious and minimalistic piano line migrate to the beginning of the song in this version; its bitter-sweetness grips the listener with a thematic twinge of feeling and provides a stable motif from where Purity Ring‘s Megan James can initiate and continue her vocal intertwining confidently.

Just like Hopkins’ piano, James gives us a melody that sticks to the mind, a descending scale that weaves itself like a spiral staircase around the air between the sustained tones of the keys. Even when the aggressive stabs kick in, adding that sense of the dark and sinister that is found throughout Immunity, James reassures us with a sweet repetition of what we have heard before. Megan James seems to understand keenly the plays of light and dark that operate within Hopkins’ work. The collaboration, in that sense, works like a dream—a slightly unsettling dream, but a dream nonetheless.

You can purchase Hopkins’ new single via iTunes.