Imogen Heap Sparks

Imogen Heap Sparks

Grammy and Ivor Novello award winning recording artist Imogen Heap will release her highly anticipated fourth solo album 'Sparks" in Australia on 5th September exclusively via iTunes, followed by a wider digital and physical release on 10th October, through her own label Megaphonic Records /Cooking Vinyl Australia.

Imogen has been on a remarkable journey across the globe to make and produce her new album 'Sparks"; saying 'The album began with someone sending in the sound of a striking match for what became Lifeline in March 2011. I then dived into the most immense, intense creative two and a half years of my life that took me all over the planet, collaborating on so many projects with so many people and often totally spontaneously. The album is then in some ways for me grounded with fans' footprints bringing the finishing touch for the album art, as so many of them came along for the ride."

While working on 'Sparks," Imogen turned songs into projects and projects into songs to bring her out of her studio and 'let life in' rather than postponing things until her album was done.

This fresh approach found Imogen collaborating with everyone from her fans to unsuspecting passers-by, gardeners to filmmakers, scientists to newspaper journalists and brings us her most diverse and daring body of work to date. From the River Thames (You Know Where To Find Me) to 5000 feet up in the Himalayas (Climb to Sakteng, Cycle Song), from her local community garden (Neglected Space) to 6 weeks in the Chinese metropolis of Hangzhou (Xizi She Knows), Heap was soaking it up, writing, developing, recording and producing. Inspired from the sounds of a dishwasher door, a Bhutanese dranyen, and the words of a crumbling wall to 700 fans' voices, Heap and her brilliant team created and developed the ground-breaking musical gloves over this period (Me The Machine) and dabbled in generative and reactive music (Run-Time) connected to a jogging app. From the deeply personal love songs Propeller Seeds and Entanglement to the crowd sourced response to the Sendai earthquake (Lifeline), her trademark honesty runs through the album.

One of the songs will only be finished once she's dead! The Listening Chair whizzes us through her first 35 years in 5 minutes and will be added to every 7 years with another minute of a cappella song.

Each of the fourteen songs on the album features a video of it's own, and is accompanied also by a -making of' video, ensuring fans can become totally immersed in the look, the feel, the sound, the ambience of this extensive body of work.

The eagerly awaited 'Sparks" world tour kicked off in August with a special one off show, -Reverb' at The Roundhouse, London, however the rest of the tour will be delayed until May 2015 as Imogen will become a mum in November!

In late August 2009, Heap released the critically acclaimed Ellipse (RCA Records) and won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non Classical. The album debuted at #5 on the Billboard Top 200, #1 on the Internet Album Chart and #2 on the Digital Album chart.

 

To follow more news from Heap herself, her much loved vBlogs are back. You can watch them here (YouTube.com/imogenheap) or sign up to her mailing list (http://imogenheap.fanbridge.com) to never miss a beat from the Heap.

Full track listing for 'Sparks" standard edition:
1. You Know Where to Find Me
2. Entanglement
3. The Listening Chair
4. Cycle Song
5. Telemiscommunications
6. Lifeline

7. Neglected Space
8. Minds Without Fear
9. Me The Machine
10. Run-Time
11. Climb To Sakteng
12. The Beast
13. Xizi She Knows
14. Propeller Seeds

www.imogenheap.com