Imogen heap

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Imogen Heap at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (2006)
Imogen Heap at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (2006)
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Speak for Yourself
  US 145 11/19/2005 (9 weeks)
ellipse
  UK 39 09/05/2009 (1 week)
  US 5 09/12/2009 (9 weeks)
Sparks
  UK 40 08/30/2014 (1 week)
  US 21st 09/06/2014 (2 weeks)
The Music of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
  UK 93 11/15/2018 (1 week)
Singles
Blanket (with Urban Species )
  UK 56 03/06/1999 (2 weeks)
Goodnight and Go
  UK 56 05/20/2006 (1 week)
Headlock
  UK 74 10/28/2006 (1 week)

Imogen Heap [ ˈɪmədʒɨn ˈhiːp ] (born December 9, 1977 ) is a British singer , composer , musician and record producer from Essex . She became known under her own name and together with Guy Sigsworth through the Frou Frou project .

Life

As the daughter of parents who are very interested in art, Imogen Heap learned to play various instruments ( piano , cello , clarinet , marimba ) in her childhood and began to compose her own music at an early age. After her parents divorced, she went to boarding school at the age of twelve . During this time, she independently acquired knowledge about music production and sampling on an Atari computer in her free time . After graduating from school, she attended the BRIT School and signed her first record deal for the record label Almo Sounds at the age of 17 .

In 1996 she performed four songs between the concerts of The Who and Eric Clapton in Hyde Park , London, on her first live performance . In 1997 she was given the opportunity to play the piano while recording a song by Bon Jovi .

In 1998 her debut album iMegaphone was released , which critics have often compared with works by PJ Harvey , Kate Bush and Annie Lennox . In addition to her own productions, she also worked with David Kahne , Dave Stewart and Guy Sigsworth on her first work .

When Almo Sounds was taken over by Universal , the contract with her was terminated.

Imogen Heap kept in touch with producer Guy Sigsworth. He invited her to his studio, where she wrote the lyrics for a song for his new project. The collaboration worked perfectly, and so Sigsworth's solo project became the Duo Frou Frou . The album Details was released in August 2002, but did not achieve the expected commercial success, the Island Records label then waived the option for a second album. Instead, Iceland made Heap the offer for a solo contract, which she did not want to accept. In 2004, the album received belated attention when the song Let Go was used for the films Garden State and Love Doesn't Have a Vacation (original title: The Holiday ).

In 2004, Imogen Heap mortgaged her apartment to finance the production of a new solo album. She completed it at the end of the same year. The song Hide and Seek was used for the second season of the television series OC, California and increased the popularity of Heap enormously. Due to the positive feedback, she contributed Speeding Cars and Hallelujah for the third season . The song Hide and Seek was also used as the soundtrack for the film The Last Kiss .

Due to her bad experience with record labels, Heap decided to start her own label Megaphonic Records . The album was released on July 18, 2005 under the title Speak for yourself and was a bigger hit than expected. In August of the same year, RCA Victor licensed the work and released it in the United States , Canada, and Mexico . On January 11, 2006, she performed the album's second single ( Goodnight and Go ) on David Letterman's Late Night Show . When she returned from the United States, she had already sold 120,000 records there. Her US tour in 2006 was a huge hit in sold out houses. In autumn 2006 she performed in her home country Great Britain and further performances in the USA. The official German sales of the album Speak for Yourself only began in January 2007 via Sony BMG Germany. In keeping with this, Imogen Heap was on a European tour until the end of January 2007.

Then she moved to the country house of her childhood, renovated it with friends and set up a studio in a room with a fireplace. She documented the work on the house, the construction of the studio and details from her everyday life such as the car inspection and the purchase of a vintage car called Abigail with weekly film recordings, which she published as a video blog on YouTube . In it she also presented short excerpts of new songs that have appeared on her new album, which was released on August 24, 2009 and is entitled ELLIPSE . For this album she was awarded the Grammy "Best Non-Classical Engineered Album" on January 31, 2010. Furthermore she was nominated for the song The Fire in the category "Best Pop Instrumental Performance".

Discography

Solo albums

  • 1998 - iMegaphone (Almo Sounds)
  • 2005 - Speak for Yourself (Megaphonic Records, RCA Victor)
  • 2009 - Ellipse (Megaphonic Records)
  • 2014 - Sparks
  • 2018 - The Music of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - In Four Contemporary Suites

With Frou Frou

  • 2002 - Details (Album) (Island, MCA)
  • 2002 - Breathe In (Single) (Island Records / Universal)

Community projects and guest appearances

  • 1996 - Wendy Moten : It's Over Now (composition, piano, programming)
  • 1997 - Jon Bon Jovi : Queen of New Orleans (piano)
  • 1997 - Acacia : Destination Anywhere (Background vocals on entire album)
  • 1999 - Urban Species : Blanket, Predictably Unpredictable (composition, vocals)
  • 2000 - Mich Gerber : Embers of Love, Mare, Sirens Call (composition, vocals)
  • 2001 - Jeff Beck : Rollin 'and Tumblin', Dirty Mind (vocals)
  • 2001 - Rustic Overtones : Valentine Day Massacre (vocals)
  • 2001 - Nik Kershaw : Jane Doe, How Sad (Background Vocals)
  • 2001 - Way Out West : Mindcircus (composition)
  • 2002 - Yaiko : I'm Not Afraid, I Like (vocals)
  • 2002 - LHB: Coming Up for Air (composition, vocals)
  • 2004 - Temposhark : Not That Big (vocals)
  • 2004 - Jon Hopkins : Contact Note (vocals)
  • 2005 - Nik Kershaw : Then and Now (production, programming, background vocals)
  • 2005 - The Chronicles of Narnia: The King of Narnia : Theme song 'Can't Take It In'
  • 2006 - Blue October : Foiled (vocals)
  • 2006 - J. Peter Schwalm : Musikain (vocals)
  • 2007 - Jeff Beck (Jeff Beck and Friends - Live at Ronnie Scott's (2007)): ​​Blanket (composition, vocals) , Rollin 'and Tumblin' (vocals)
  • 2009 - IAMX : My Secret Friend (vocals)
  • 2009 - Mika : By the Time (vocals)
  • 2009 - I Fight Dragons vs. Imogen Heap - The Process (vocals) (available for download only)
  • 2012 - Deadmau5 & Imogen Heap - Telemiscommunications (vocals)
  • 2014 - Taylor Swift: Clean (Background Vocals)
  • 2017 - One Love Manchester - Ariana Grande benefit concert

swell

  1. ↑ a b Chart sources: UK chart statistics / US chart history

Web links

Commons : Imogen Heap  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Heap, Imogen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English singer, composer, musician and record producer
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1977