Imogen Heap's aching voice and spectral electronics infuse countless films and iPods with bone-chilling atmospherics.
Why you should listen to her:
Classically trained composer, multi-instrumentalist and singer Imogen Heap finds her muse in unlikely places. Her earliest exposure to electronic composition came when an exasperated music teacher exiled her to a back room full of neglected digital gear, where she discovered her under-the-hood aptitude for getting strange sounds out of arcane electronics. Since then, she's mined sonic mystery from sources ranging from cardboard tubes to cheap samplers -- not to mention her own vocal cords.
Working on her own and in the duo Frou Frou (who appeared at TED2004), Heap delivers elegantly constructed songs, beautifully sung, with a shimmer of electronic polish laid over an emotionally honest core.
Heap's songs have appeared in numerous films, commercials and TV shows, but she might be best known for the runaway success of "Hide and Seek,"a lone vocal track accompanied only by sparse vocoder harmonies. The track leapt from the soundtrack of the US TV show The O.C. to become a download sensation. Her third album, Ellipse, is just out.
"Heap is not just a compelling vocalist from the Kate Bush school for the intensely intriguing. She's a charismatic singer willing to dig deep."David Wild, Rolling Stone Records
