Never the same twice - #Heapsong6
Just a brief entry… am sitting here playing with The Gloves and have made the decision to celebrate the fluidity of interacting musically with them in writing a song that will be different every time it’s played.
Significantly, meaning themes and chords. Lyrics will be the same but the melody they embody with adjust depending on the harmonic bass line/ chords accompanying them. This means that the official song will be dependant on the listener not the writer. Perhaps that’s the version you heard first or the most recent version you heard at a gig? I LIKE that! Exciting! I wonder what my publisher’s will think of that as a copyrighted song is the order and combination of chords and melody along with lyric. Anyway… will deal with that later!
So there is no official version as it won’t be ‘studio recorded’. It’s a song that is written entirely to be fluid and ever changing. I will perform the first of many of this song starting on 22nd April from my garden 7.30pm BST, with the live stream (powered by cyclists and solar batteries). Check out my website for more info if you have no idea what I”m talking about :)
Also, if you’d like to be there for the first one, are an avid cyclist and live in the UK email bike@imogenheap.com to find out how. We’ll need you for rehearsals the day before 21st April possibly. There’s space for 10 people. There’s a bit more to it than that but email us and let us know and we’ll email you details. I live on the borders of Essex and London so you can get your bearings/ see how far you have to cycle to get here!
Ok… back to writing the lyrics, the sound world and choosing a key and tempo the song will exist in (at least for 22nd :)
Lots of love from a slightly nervous Heap (5 days to write and practice a song that will only exist officially from those 5 minutes next Sunday!) xx
Was thinking while improvising…maybe a spot of piano improvisation for Earth Hour 31st. Will stream incase you’d like some accompaniment to lights out Xx
Xizi She Knows, hot on the dragon’s tail
Well my friends… for those who’ve been following a bit the journey I took to Hangzhou, China, you’ll be aware I wrote a song out there called ‘Xizi She Knows’ (was Heapsong5). It seemed only right to release it today (well actually now 2 days ago, coz of a video upload upload saga in Stoke, oddly) on Chinese New Year. Tis now the year of the Dragon!
My website and store (here you can also get the 4 other songs finished so far)
My facebook page (you can watch the new video and listen to all 5 songs)
Quick insight…
The music is made up of field recordings from 24 different locations around Hangzhou on my 34th birthday over a 24 hour period in Hangzhou, China. Recorded during an event I curated where tons of local people got involved. One of them is on the front cover. A woman doing shouting exercises at the top of her lungs on top of Baoccu hill as the sun rises. I think I’m gonna take a leaf from her book some days! You can hear how i used the sounds we recorded on ‘Xizi’s bits’. It was amazing and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. The whole day was filmed and in the next couple of months that short film will be released but for now you can see parts of it we made into the music video, which I love and brings back many wonderful memories. In a month i’ll release a mandarin sung version I’ll be making (getting it translated by Pang Wei, a wonderful poet from Hangzhou).
You can buy the song on its own or as part of a very lovely 3diCD with loads of photos I took in the booklet and also a a slideshow I made for you with text insight into the lyric. Xizi’s bits is on there and also the first 5.1 surround mix of one of my songs, compliments of John Crossley. You can buy all from my website today in various different formats. Of course I would recommend the highest quality.
Thanks again to the British Council, The PRS Foundation and my hosts in Hangzhou who made this all possible, the Dushukaibao (the city Express) newspaper.
Really hope you enjoy it! I think it sounds best cycling around hangzhou at night. It was made for it!
So happy to share this song and some of the moments there with you. Lots of love! xxx immi xxx
Also… please hashtag any tweets you’d like me to read about the song with #XiziSheKnows
Wow! So impressed! I asked Veronica to sing me the mandarin translation Pang Wei (poet from Hangzhou) has done of Xizi She Knows. She did great and so has Pang Wei by the feel of it (though am still waiting on translation back to english)! The flow of lyric is very similar to the english, original version. I was expecting it to be wildly different and bracing myself for it too but all is more than well. Now… Well Saturday actually… I have to sing it all over again (plus tracking and harmonies) in Mandarin! Eeeeek, how hard is that going to be??? VERY!
By the end of it, I’ll have a rather unusual set of sayings and words to draw from when conversing in mandarin but you gotta start somewhere right?
Wish me luck and lots of patience!
Xx
Here are some more pics from Hangzhou for you. I’d picked a few out this Christmas, as instead of giving gifts to each other we gave short talks, sometimes accompanied by photos. It was really great! I loved it and look forward to doing it again next year. We all learnt something about whatever topic somebody chose and also about the person giving the talk.
Guess what mine was about? You got it. Heap in Hangzhou.
Now… I’m either going to go into the studio for an all nighter on ‘Xizi She Knows’ or I’m going to get an early night. hmmmm….. maybe a cup of tea will entice a decision.
I’m off to Paris the day after tomorrow for a few days. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Paris and not been working. Almost 15 years actually. Long overdue. I want to sit in coffee shops, drift off somewhere between people watching and reading books. Catch up on the phone to old friends while walking aimlessly through small streets. Perhaps venture into the Lourve? I’ve never been.
lots of love! à bientôt!
x i x
