In 16 years, Imogen Heap has released only four albums (in addition to collaborating with Guy Sigsworth as Frou Frou) and that’s not because her ideas are non-prolific and that she goes through creative dry spells but rather like Portishead, Heap embarks on ambitious projects that need time to brew to perfection. She is not focused on the immediate money reward that successful music brings but rather a bigger picture of innovative creativity. Heap’s inventiveness has hit its peak in the diverse and rewarding “Sparks.”
Over the course of a three-year production, fans were invited to submit found sound bites of anything they wanted (of which 900 were used) and these are evident throughout. From radiator noises, bicycle wheels, people talking in cafes, wind chimes, dishwasher doors to burnt matches, which all make for a truly remarkable and multi-layered experience on each listen. Heap’s voice is also still multi-layered like an onion and is as recognizable as ever which will keep the Heap fans happy but the courageous project will create a new army of fans.
However, in certain tracks her voice develops into something new; in “Neglected Space” she narrates a story in an identical vein to Natasha Khan talking about the world in an overthinking mentality before ending with a Nihilistic bombshell: “How long before I am dust?.” In the unpredictable “Listening Chair”, she adopts a double monologue technique of playing both characters in a conversation, a voice style mastered by Charlotte Gainsbourg. It’s a admirably confusing track summed up by the line: “I want to have children but I don’t want to have children.”
Heap is also at the forefront of music technology and her infamous gestural music gloves are both used to create and to be inspiration for the subject manner in “Me the Machine”. In which she uses computer terms (“I’m downloading romance”) to describe modern love. However, Heap notes both sides of the coin and is less positive about modern technology when she tells the story of a doomed long-distance relationship that lacks substance and is self-reliant on electronic communication in “Telemiscommunication.” She evens ditches electronic sounds altogether also in “The Listening Chair”, borrowing inspiration from Bjork’s “Medulla” album to create a track made purely of vocals.
If this wasn’t diverse enough, I haven’t mentioned yet the Bhutanese flavour of “Minds Without Fear” and “The Cycle Song” which collaborate with Vishal Shekar and were made for a documentary about Bhutan, whilst the penultimate “Xizi She Knows”, is a sweet track noticeably recorded in China with Chinese children. Every track has it’s own personality and even when she is at her most mainstream on the danceable Hot Chip-meets-La Roux track “Run-Time.” it still feels thought-provoking, clever and artistic. I guess you could label this the best world music of the year because it excels in both it’s worldwide influences and worldwide samples. Highly recommended. MTH