Imogen Heap's iBlog

Never the same twice - #Heapsong6

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:44:25 +0100

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

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:33:00 +0100

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 (mp3)

Xizi She Knows, hot on the dragon's tail

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:41:00 +0000

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...

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:10:15 +0000

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...

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 01:17:55 +0000

bike cart in Mantoshan

Air drying meaty snacks

Air drying teddy

Airing shoes

Sports day and activities with parents

The West lake with lotus leaves

Elegant ladies dancing for our film

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

I’ve just woken up from from dead sleep. It had been over...

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:01:00 +0000

Sticks burned at the Lingyin Temple

Students from Professor Chen's class

Poet, Pang Wei to my right sitting down

two fish on a wall

I’ve just woken up from from dead sleep. It had been over 43 hours since I’d had some. It’s dark now outside and Harry potter lights up the screens above and Russia is probably below. The foam earplugs are in and I’m typing to the muffled sounds of a jet engine and an american and a german, discussing rather loudly what they do for a living behind me in row 39. One’s an architect and the other I don’t know as I’ve now added an extra layer of protection in the form of music on top of the foam mufflers. The first song in my headphones is “beaming husband’ by Goetic. I surprisingly perhaps, rarely listen to music. When I do, it’s a sign of me slowing down, sadness or content. The spaces in between the often mayhem of my everyday pace and I don’t seem to find them very often. Something I’ve been feeling I’d like to change but that will already have to wait for 2013. I and all of the other passengers are on our way to Frankfurt to connect to the next parts of our journeys. I suppose most of us to be with our loved ones for Christmas. Tonight I fall into the arms of Thomas in Sonderborg, Denmark for his family christmas gathering due tomorrow, then Thomas and I head back to ol’ blighty for our Christmas and reconnections with my family. The 24th December will be the first time in nearly 3 months on home turf. I return a with a view of the East greatly different to the one I had before I left. This trip will turn out to have been a huge positive shift in my life. From now on, I can look over at China’s huge land mass and see a bright light in Hangzhou, a place of great inspiration, full of new friends and a future for me in it.

I don’t know how and where to start as I really have a lot to catch you up on, so perhaps I’ll begin with the last conversation I had in China in the car on the way to the airport. It clearly identifies to me that this was not a fleeting visit but more the beginning of my creative dialogue with China, through Hangzhou. The conversation was with Joe, the man I’d pretty much spent all of my 6 weeks in China with and who amongst being many other wonderful things, is a journalist at the Dushukuibao (City Express local Newspaper). The 2nd largest local paper in China with 1.3 million readers and a few of who’m got in touch with us to be part of the 24 hour filmed day in Hangzhou (on my birthday). I will just say now that Joe was awarded for his work on this project by his boss and vey well and rightly deserved too. We were discussing what Professor Chen (who is the head of curation and public art faculty at the University) had suggested at dinner last night in that I make this a regular yearly occurence for Hangzhou. My first verbal reaction was that perhaps it was too much for me to take on every year but a part of me instinctively felt he was right, that the Hangzhou story doesn’t end here.

My next thought was perhaps a much longer term project involving photographers, documenting the change in the city and it’s rapid development. This connects in part to the theme of the song I just wrote in Hangzhou ‘Xizi She Knows’ (previously known as #heapsong5).

So… getting back to the car. I was saying to Joe how I’d really love to make a film of collected photographs from as far back as they go and encourage people in the city over the next 5 years to get involved and anyone who’s been to Hangzhou (including me) to be a part of it also. To focus on particular areas these next 5 years to document and feature in the film. One of the major areas is a place I loved called Mantoshan, which I’ve made reference to in Xizi She Knows. Hopefully this area, one of the last few older parts of town and it’s community will still be there intact in 5 years but it’s not at all a given. 5 years from now, we can really document the further growth of the city. That may not seem like a lot to see much of a difference but to give you an idea of the rate of change, Joe remembers fields all over, from just 10 years ago, where now the city sprawls with new roads, buildings and construction everywhere, much like the rest of China.

There would need to be a website created for the Hangzhou pics to be uploaded to and ask people to plot on a map where it was taken and from what direction as best they can. The website is a huge part of the main work and it can continue long after the project for residents beyond to share, update and enjoy. It could also be replicated in other cities once it’s been formulated. The film I can already see an early version in my head. From monochrome to full colour HD, the energy picking up throughout, buildings sprouting up out of fields as we traverse from dirt roads to multilane major roads. All animated using only still photography. Perhaps even ending panning out to the whole of china’s lights at night from satellite imagery if we can get it (or in after effects if we can’t) so you watch the glow of city lights in bloom. I’d write a piece for the Hangzhou symphony orchestra that be the soundtrack to the film. We of course need to find the lead team but in my head it already exists. I’m just out of the frying pan and already oiling up a huge wok!

I am going to come back to Hangzhou for the Lantern festival on 6th Feb which is the last official day of the Chinese New Year celebrations. I’ll do a talk and play the film we just shot in Hangzhou, and also play the song of ‘Xizi She Knows’ to those involved (there were probably about 300 people in the end!) and anyone else who fancies coming along too. We’re going to give away 1000 lanterns with the song and film to mark the occasion. I will also with Joe, talk a bit about the 5 year Hangzhou project and see who raises their hands to get involved.

Firstly though, I mustn’t get too carried away and finish what I started! Between Christmas and New Year I will mix Xizi She Knows at home. Then In the New Year will edit the music video and the film with Alex and Mike (which I also need to score!) complete with a version sung in Mandarin and 3DiCD digital artwork of pics from the big day. All this need to happen before release 23rd Jan! Crazy woman! My energy will come from imagining myself in the room with everyone involved watching and listening for the first time and seeing all the friends I made again.

Completely not expecting to be going back to England with these extremely warm feelings for a country that often gets rather bad press. I wanted to understand and discover my own version of China. My first and only other trip to mainland China was in 2007, when I spontaneously diverted from my writing trip to do a three song performance at a festival in Beijing. I was in Hong Kong when I got the request, so it was relatively down the road. I had a very different experience. Short, hurried and disconnected. Sadly I didn’t really garner much positive thought from my stay and wanted to not have that as my lasting impression of China. It’s not down to Beijing my experience wasn’t good but I didn’t have a local ‘Joe’ there to humanise it and show me around. I was a tourist in Beijing but I felt like part of a community in Hangzhou. I met poets, calligraphers, journalists, teachers, students, musicians, dancers, shop owners, street cleaners, you name it to an amazing group of older men and women doing traditional dancing in their spare time and organising fashion shows. These people included to the girls who worked in our little hotel bar and the every day contact with people just getting around the city, I can honestly say I didn’t meet one person I didn’t like. I found individualism thriving and people curious not nervous of my being there and really wanting to share their love for the city. The whole project was done with volunteers and the great generosity of the Dushukaibao local paper.

One of my most favourite characters I met is a city express reader who got in touch after reading one of my articles about the project, Zyang, a retired coal miner of 40 years. A complete lust for life in his new found spare time, he finds joy in dressing up in clothes made for and designed for him by his wife and performing all over the city with his flag or fan dancing or just quite simply, strutting his stuff for the crowd assembled around him wherever he goes. On his 60th birthday, same day as mine he waved a bright yellow huge flag in a pink silk embroidered shirt and white chinos triumphantly, gracefully, joyfully, seriously at an intersection of rush hour traffic for our cameras and that (minus the cameras) is quite normal for him! He’s having fun and it can’t help to make you smile to watch him.

There are obvious factors that I didn’t get along with. I couldn’t tweet, access my own tumblr blog or go on youtube for instance without using my UK iphone, due to the great firewall of China. Not only very frustrating and irritating to not feel free to roam as I please but as a result I ended up using my iphone for internet access which largely contributed toward a £5k phone bill! Why the phone company didn’t warn me of this ridiculously outrageous bill in the making I don’t know… but I am going to ask and try to get some of that back. That’s just plain stealing! anyway.. i digress…

The greatest gift is to know and relate to China without only the bias of international press. The sometimes awful fragments we hear about in our headlines, that often don’t seem to make it onto local news channels, are not representative of the China I experienced this time. It fills me with great hope for the future, as global power shifts from West to East this century. I have had many thoughts and eye opening discussions during my time but I will just say that knowing that bright, well informed, good hearted individuals such as professor Chen, Zhu Jian, Meta and Joe are all there, I believe things will work themselves out. I would also add Veronica, who was also with me for most of my trip as a volunteer translator (and pipa player in our film) to the list but she got into Brown University so will be in Rhode Island for a few years! Congrats! (we are in Skype birthday message video together if you have come across that rather odd thing I did also while I was in Hangzhou).

So in brief, what else did I get out of from my stay in Hangzhou? Well… I rediscovered (perhaps temporarily as I plunge back into the studio) the long lost social being in me, played some pool, laughed a lot, ate out every day and discovered a whole new cuisine (nothing like the chinese food I’ve had outside of China!), made some great friends, thought about my life and what I want out of it, wrote one of my favourite songs, curated a project outside of music involving 100s of local residents, directed a film, immersed myself into the culture and history of a place I haven’t ever done for longer than 2 weeks outside of London and want to help create a small cafe/ gallery/ come talks and music performance venue for Hangzhou. I also met during the end of my stay a painter called Yu Peng from Taiwan. He would have been the first painter I would have forked out a huge sum of money for one of his works had he not offered to give me a piece when I come back in February (which will make up for the phone bill!)! I am one lucky girl! I haven’t yet had a chance to see if any of his work is online but will look soon as I send you some links.

Well that’s about it, I haven’t caught up on my incredible trip to Bhutan and the Himalayas or India and the playing my first gigs there. Both of which I visited in November (in between 6 week Hangzhou residency) but we are now descending into Frankfurt and I wanted to get this updated a bit before family time sets in. So I will leave you with my lyrics for Xizi She Knows, which after a long discussion with Pan Wei (a very well respected poet from Hangzhou, who has graciously agreed to translate it due to in part a mutual love for Hangzhou, pic above of us discussing the lyric) are going to be translated into Mandarin! After all… the song is about Hangzhou at its core and would be a shame if nobody from there could understand it. Some things will definitely get lost in direct translation so Pang Wei will be expertly weaving in some of his own artistry to get the points across. It was very interesting to dissect a lyric fully to someone and realise what ‘tricks’ I use. I will do that later for you in writing but for now, here are just the lyrics which I hope speak to you also, even though most likely you are not from Hangzhou, as you can’t access my blog without a VPN for a start. Unlike poetry, it may need the music to make complete sense! I’ll add more photos more later.

——————————————————————————————————-

Xizi She Knows

Verse 1
We come to your shores over misty millennia

From hustlers to emperors, for power and pleasure.

We carve through the cars, dance among the daily news
Cue in the grande ballabile
Even your ten ton tone rings home for Marco Polo

Chorus 1
Slow down
From a thread of sky
To the warp and weft of your being
You’re beautiful graceful, like no other, pretty damned good as you are

Friend of mine, in a terrible hurry for change
As you Unravel your marvels, from evergreen gardens, remember we loved you this way

Verse 2

To treasure it all, scroll out to see

In gold, fire, wood, clay and water

Your structure and flow, adagio to allegro

With leaves to the tide

In full moon, plum blossom, We salute to you

Chorus 2
Slow down
From a thread of sky
To the warp and weft of your being
Dynamic and playful, opened my eyes yeah you’re pretty damned great as you are

Friend of mine, could you go for progression not pace
Unravel your marvels but don’t lose them all on the way

m8
Mantoshan

Chorus 3
Slow down
From a thread of sky
To the warp and weft of your being
You’re beautiful graceful, like no other, pretty damned good as you are

Friend of mine, you’re in a terrible hurry to change
Unravel your marvels, from evergreen gardens, remember we loved you this way

Woah, to the warp and weft of your being
You’re beautiful graceful, like no other, p p p pretty dammed good as you are

Xizi she knows that once it’s gone then it’s gone!

—————————————————————————————————-

p.s. For the ultimate experience, come to Hangzhou and cycle through the city with it at high volume! Highly recommended by Hangzhou Heap.

The song Xizi She Knows, making of Neglected Space, surround sound mix of Neglected Space, 3DiCD digital artwork, film and music video will all be released 23rd January if all things go as planned so you’ll have to wait until then I’m afraid.

p.p.s If you’re looking for some Imogen Heap for a christmas playlist might I suggest ‘Just For Now’. Not exactly ‘Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire’ I grant you but still… topical! x Lots of love! xxx

West lake, saying goodbye for now to Beautiful, life changing Hangzhou!

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:32:07 +0000

West lake, saying goodbye for now to Beautiful, life changing Hangzhou! (mp3)

Monks evening chant at Lingyin temple. No photos inside. This is a wood carving relief on the back entrance.

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:16:41 +0000

Monks evening chant at Lingyin temple. No photos inside. This is a wood carving relief on the back entrance. (mp3)

Lingyin temple, monks singing

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:06:27 +0000

Lingyin temple, monks singing (mp3)

Half speed Christmas carols

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:58:29 +0000

Half speed Christmas carols (mp3)

Children's choir preparing for new year concert in Hangzhou

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 08:42:03 +0000

Children”s choir preparing for new year concert in Hangzhou (mp3)

Harmonica in Hangzhou

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:50:54 +0000

Harmonica in Hangzhou (mp3)

Musicians! Nokia music theatre at music connects in Mumbai

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:06:50 +0000

Musicians! Nokia music theatre at music connects in Mumbai (mp3)

Bhutanese dancing! Amazing costumes.

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:05:30 +0000

Bhutanese dancing! Amazing costumes. (mp3)

Indigenous Bhutanese chanting!

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:05:13 +0000

Indigenous Bhutanese chanting! (mp3)

Chanting in Bhutan.

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:03:48 +0000

Chanting in Bhutan. (mp3)

Now in India! Xx (Taken with instagram)

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 04:27:05 +0000

Now in India! Xx (Taken with instagram)

Flight AI 349 Bhutan via Delhi

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:56:36 +0000

I planned temporarily to put my residence in Hangzhou on hold for a few weeks. I return on 27th November (via a brief tour in India). For now, I’m heading to Delhi to meet up with my dearest Thomas in a hotel room in the middle of the night before we both fly out to Paro, Bhutan for the beginning of our a himalayan adventure tomorrow. May turn out to be an adven(tor)ture, as I’ve not done any exercise in the last 3 weeks apart from walk up a hill in Hangzhou and cycle about a bit. Eek! One of the days for instance, we WILL (note positive attitude) walk 22k between 4-5k metres. I’m writing some music for their documentary film on Gross National Happiness and so trekking with the film crew for a bit to get a feel for the place (and my legs as they jelly out beneath me) and to record the sounds of people and places (if the 35 donkeys that our coming with us/carrying our gear, don’t steal the audio limelight as I try to) as we go.

I will message with pics as often as I can. I can’t wait to see the Himalayas in all their majestic beauty with my own eyes! Mmmm!

Round up blog from stage one of Hangzhou artist in residence. I...

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 21:44:00 +0000

Round up blog from stage one of Hangzhou artist in residence. I am in a taxi, on my way to Shanghai, Pudong airport. My taxi driver for a while, was carving through really intense rush hour traffic, chatting away undistracted to someone on his mobile as the radio was blasting out a long stream of rather irritating adverts. Amazing what the human brain can do! I was hoping to get some work done and catch up on my blog for the 3 hour trip. Thankfully he became aware of how noisy it was in the car and switched everything off and I got stuck in. Now it’s peaceful as we glide along the newly tarmaced roads, sometimes whizzing breifly under an enormous unfinished bridge here and there,stretching far out into the distance to connect perhaps locations not even yet fully realised. The rate of growth is astounding here. Yesterday there was a breakthrough on the Day in the life of Hangzhou project. Joe Zhu, works at the city express paper who are hosting me over here is helping me greatly with this project. He seems to know everyone and introduces me to all the right people. Enter professor Chen Zu Jin, who teaches at the China Academy of Art here in Hangzhou. The course he teaches doesn’t exist anywhere else in china and it’s Art in Public Space! He teaches the art of curation and specialises in public space! He and his students are going to help me find the painters/ sculptors/ potters/ cartoonists… you name it. Could it be any more perfect a collabrotation? In essence the film part of this project is 24 mini curated events. Coupling the everyday in Hangzhou with accompanying art. Wether it be music (will go into the song), dancing or street calligraphy. The Academy of Art istelf is a major core of Hangzhou so even on a very basic level it works. So exciting! I gave a little overview to a couple of classes that Profeesor Chen teaches. It’s quite hard to say in a nutshell. I need to get better at that. After the talk, a few students came up wanting to get involved right off the bat so that’s great. So, I’ve written up another piece that Joe is going to translate and get into print for tomorrow’s City Express paper to find our members of the public and also a wider search outside of the Academy that professor Chen will also go through with me to find our 24combinations. After that Joe and I wandered about the campus peering it where we could at what was going on. I saw the sculpture, pottery and architecture dept. Saw some pots going in for the heat. Interestingly, they make pottery for class and pottery to sell! The campus itself was once on an old village and was transformed it into the Academy. Some great buildings around. Nature weaving it’s way into the structures as part of it’s design. Lots of bicycles! I know I would have really enjoyed going ot university but wasn’t to be. Record deal straight out of school. Thought I’d give it a go for a year or so and see how it went. Haven’t looked back. I’m now heading to Bhtuan (more in next blog) but when I get back we should have some responses and ideas from the students on who wants to get involved and how. Professor Chen made it clear as day to me, the enormity of what this project has become and we estimate that 200-300 people needing to be involved to pull this off. I started with the intention of writing a song in Hangzhou that would lead me to meet as many people and see as much of the city as possible. It’s been all that and more already (except I haven’t written the song yet). Somehow it always works out though doesn’t it and usually bccuase of help from others. In this case because of Joe, Professor Cheng, Veronica and the rest of what is become a rather large team of people. Attached are some pics I took yesterday at the school and from the day before walking up and down some nearby hills to try to prepare a little for what is to come! Lots of love Hangzhou Heap!

Last night I danced with a penguin, a legoman and a zombie with...

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:52:00 +0000

Last night I danced with a penguin, a legoman and a zombie with a traffic cone on her head. Heap in Hangzhou for Halloween. No pics though! Tragedy. I was decidedly under dressed actually (rather unusual for me). I went for a loooooooong walk up a hill or two that day and miscalculated the roundtrip so didn’t get an outfit together in time. A n y w a y… for those of you who are looking for a Ghostbusters alternative (though a song that I nostalgically rather like) and other such traditional Halloween hits… perhaps a piano version of Thriller a la Heap? x This was recorded live for a BBC radio 2 show a couple of years back.