Full Album Stream
Like Kimbra, the mecca of all exclusive album streams and music opinions, npr.org has the 1st full stream of it. But then again, the campaign backers and deluxe version preorders I imagine have had it for a few weeks.
My take: I am enjoying a lot of it. The world/ethnic influence works pretty well and is a nice progressive/change from Ellipse and even the Speak For Yourself. But there's a lot of classic Heap stuff on here as well with electronics, conversational lyrics, vocal layering and a lot more.
I suppose my favorites initially: Lifeline, The Listening Chair, Neglected Space, The Beast, Entanglement, and Telemiscommunications.
A good chance I will get more into this than Ellipse, but I suppose part of that is my expectation level for that album this were pretty different.
7/17/14 1:26PM
New song/video "Cycle Song"
Nice but short. Sounds more like an interlude. Rather ethnic sounding which is not surprising given how this album was made.
6/30/14 4:33PM
Here's a story confirming the release date is August 19th. I likely will get the standard vinyl
Amazon Preorder (Vinyl)
Amazon.com Preorder (CD)
Grammy and Ivor Novello award winning recording artist Imogen Heap will release her highly anticipated 4th solo album “Sparks” on August 19th, 2014 through RCA Records. The physical album is currently available for pre-order on Amazon here.
Sparks has been on a well travelled journey, one which Heap began at 6am 14 March 2011, with a live stream from her home studio in a small village on the outskirts of London, gathering 'sound seeds' from fans and weaving them together to form the first song (Lifeline). Fast forward, 4 continents later, a dozen related projects and 14 tracks, the album cover artwork was then completed by those who pre-ordered the limited edition, super deluxe box set by sending in their footprints! The stunning piece of artwork and packaging, designed and developed over the past three years by Imogen and her creative team with CSV (the company behind Radiohead’s special packaging) it is the very first time that Imogen has released such a super deluxe package. An interactive album cover featuring the footprints of fans worldwide also just premiered on The Creators Project, a partnership between Intel and VICE.
Says Heap, “The album began with someone sending in the sound of striking a match for what became Lifeline in March 2011. I then dived into the most immense, intense creative 2 and a half years of my life that took me all over the planet, collaborating on so many projects with so many people and often totally spontaneously. The album is then in some ways for me grounded with fans’ footprints bringing the finishing touch for the album art, as so many of them came along for the ride.”
“Sparks” will be available in four formats – a standard edition, a double-disc edition with instrumental versions of all tracks, 12 inch vinyl and the super deluxe; super deluxe packaging will contain 12 individual data discs, 14 HD music videos, plus videos documenting the making of each song and the entire album, a double 10” vinyl album, a special deck of playing cards which unlock exclusive web content and a 120 page coffee-table-style book telling the story of “Sparks” along with the special ticket of blended items that allows access to sound-checks on the next tour.
While working on “Sparks,” Heap turned songs into projects and projects into songs, to bring her out of her studio and 'let life in' rather than postponing things until her album was done. This fresh approach found Imogen collaborating with everyone from her fans to unsuspecting passers-by, gardeners to filmmakers, scientists to newspaper journalists and brings us her most diverse and daring body of work to date. From the River Thames (You Know Where To Find Me) to 5000 feet up in the Himalayas (Climb to Sakteng, Cycle Song), from her local community garden (Neglected Space) to 6 weeks in the Chinese metropolis of Hangzhou (Xizi She Knows), Heap was soaking it up, writing, developing, recording and producing. Sounds of a dishwasher door to a Bhutanese dranyen, the voice of a crumbling wall to 700 fans’ becoming a spoken word chorus. One of Heap's projects include her brilliant Mi.Mu Gloves, developed over this album period with an incredible team of scientists, engineers, and artists (Me The Machine) and dabbled in generative and reactive music with music app developers RJDJ (Run-Time) connected to a jogging app. From the deeply personal love songs Propeller Seeds and Entanglement to the crowd sourced response to the Sendai earthquake (Lifeline), her trademark honesty runs through the album.
One of the songs will only be finished once she’s dead! The Listening Chair whizzes us through her first 35 years in 5 minutes and will be added to every 7 years with another minute of a cappella song!
Heap's last album Ellipse earned her a Grammy and Ivor Novello award. This summer marks the release of Sparks, her fifth (including Frou Frou's album Details) and most ambitious album to date. Sparks' songs have taken Imogen all over the world from her North East London home studio to the Himalayas via China. This year Imogen is the guest artist-curator for the iconic London Roundhouse venue’s new music festival Reverb. The eagerly awaited Sparks world tour will begin at Reverb with an extra special show in August 2014, however the rest of the tour is slightly delayed to May 2015 as Imogen will be a mum come November!
To follow more news from Heap herself, her much loved vBlogs are back. You can watch them here (YouTube.com/imogenheap) or sign up to her mailing list (http://imogenheap.fanbridge.com) to never miss a beat from the Heap
Full tracklisting for “Sparks” standard edition:
01. You Know Where to Find Me
02. Entanglement
03. The Listening Chair
04. Cycle Song
05. Telemiscommunications
06. Lifeline
07. Neglected Space
08. Minds Without Fear
09. Me The Machine
10. Run-Time
11. Climb To Sakteng
12. The Beast
13. Xizi She Knows
14. Propeller Seeds
www.imogenheap.com
4/22/14 5:21PM
"The Machine" video
3/1/14 12:00PM
This (below) is supposedly 1-of the tracklists, per the Deluxe Boxed Set, which I will admit to not ordering. And unfortunately, I read was pushed back a bit, until April or May. But the release date was set to March 3rd a while ago. I have not seen many official sites mentioning, just the standard version. Promos, reviews, etc. Why I wonder if the March 3rd street date is still accurate. But if it is, I'll be looking to check this record out on Monday or at least in the next week or two.
edit: per Wikipedia
Sparks is the forthcoming fourth studio album by English recording artist Imogen Heap. The album will be released, via RCA on 3 March 2014, in two editions: standard and deluxe box set. The standard edition will consist of 14 tracks and will include all of Heap's 2011–2013 singles. On 21 February 2014, a video was posted on her official site stating that the release date has been changed to April.
1 You Know Where to Find Me
2 Entanglement
3 The Listening Chair
4 Cycle Song
5 Telemiscommunication
6 Lifeline
7 Neglected Space
8 Minds Without Fear
9 Me the Machine
10 Run-Time
11 Climb to Sakteng
12 The Beast
13 Xizi She Knows
14 Propeller Seeds
Even the standard ARTWORK I'm not finding at this time. The Deluxe Boxed Set shows some artwork.
I do like the way the Deluxe Boxed Set includes
Here's a re-cap of what's included:
• Sparks album on CD
• A special ticket that grants you access to a sound check on Imogen's 2014 world tour
• 10 inch Sparks double gatefold vinyl album
• 12 DVD data discs with lossless versions of each Heapsong inc HD music videos + making-of videos of each song, packaged in beautiful case bound books with 16 page colour booklet
• Making of the album DVD featuring all box set material
• 120 page photo book telling the story of 'Sparks'
• Deck of 52 playing cards that unlock exclusive web content
• Specially blended paper made from objects Immi use to make the album
http://www.imogenheap.com/deluxeboxset/
9/20/13 11:45AM
From the Mailing List:
We are delighted to announce that Imogen's brand new album 'Sparks' will be released on 3rd March 2014. We are giving mailing list members the chance to pre-order the strictly limited edition deluxe boxset for delivery a week earlier, on 24th February 2014.
What's more, if you pre-order before 30th September 2013 you can upload your footprints and they will become part of the 'Sparks' album cover across all formats. The first 100 people to order also get to visit Immi's house!
A message from Immi:
Hello there. Hope all's well with you.
I've been little miss hermit heap in my studio the Hideaway these past months with a real push to get the audio for the album finished in time for my sanity to stay intact!
It's turned out to be a monster of an album and even though I finished it two weeks ago, it still hasn't dawned on me. A bit like your last day at school!
For all the other bits, like making of documentaries, photos, music videos, commentaries etc, I realised pretty early on (about 2 years ago) that it won't fit onto your average CD, so I've been cooking up a Deluxe box set!
I've made a little video for you to explain a bit more about what's in it. You can watch it here :)
I may have a glass of champagne when I get mine as It pretty much represents my musical life since March 2011 with all the projects I've been involved in, connecting to a song.
WOO HOO!
Really hope you love the music and this rather sexy deluxe box set to accompany it!
xxx immi xxx
Visit the deluxe website to pre-order your boxset now and upload your footprints which will become part of the album cover!
All these wonderful details aside, this DELUXE BOXED SET is well, rather DELUXE being 10 discs, a DVD-Doc, and Vinyl. The price on the site shows a cool $299.99. So, yeah, I'd love a copy, but I also would love to use the $260+ extra to use on a plane ticket to Arizona or my savings account. There's only a limited number of the Boxed Sets anyway, so who knows if they are already sold out.
But at least we do know the actual Title being SPARKS (not Spark), and the release date being March 3rd of 2014.
9/3/13 8:53PM
just a follow up to this Entry "Imogen Heap: 2012 Recap
This is just information she's posted at scattered points throughout the last 3 years. But taking this info to be somewhat if not rather accurate. this upcoming LP will be coming out in November. The title "Spark" is a *POSSIBLE* title as that twitter post linked on Wikipedia does not really sound certain at all (and it was from just a few months ago, in July).
But assuming the November release happens and that track list is close if not fully accurate (and the order for that matter), more of the details shouldn't be far away.
Wikipedia Page
Spark is the tentative title[1] of the upcoming fourth studio album by English recording artist Imogen Heap. The album will be released on Megaphonic Records in November 2013 in two packages: standard edition and deluxe album box set. The standard edition will consist of 14 tracks and will include all of Heap's singles released between 2011 and 2013.
Background
Spark is a concept album. Each song that is related to a certain project has been released every three months. On 14 March 2011, Heap started work on a new record as fans sent in nearly 900 "sound seeds", or samples of everyday sounds such as a "dishwasher door", a "bicycle" or a "burning match". Heap says the concept for this album will be to record one track over a two-week period every three months. Each song and video will be released immediately.
The first song, initially entitled "#heapsong1" and later retitled "Lifeline", premiered worldwide on 28 March 2011 via Ustream[2] along with a live remix by Tim Exile. "Lifeline" was released on 30 March 2011 as a digital download from Imogen's website and via iTunes, Amazon and other digital retailers. Released alongside this was a 12-page 3DiCD package (a 3D virtual CD) including crowd sourced (and paid for) images, the instrumental version of the song, the "seeds and solos only" version and "heap speaks seeds and solos" - an-18-minute commentary by Heap on how the sounds and solos were used in "Lifeline". The song is a tribute to the victims of the2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The second song, "Propeller Seeds", was recorded using 3D audio effects and headphones are recommended for listeners to get the full effect. The third song, "Neglected Space", incorporates concepts, people and sounds from a lab organized by the Clear Village Charitable Trust to restore a walled garden in Bedfords Park.[3] The fourth song, "Minds Without Fear", was the first song to be featured on the 2011 Indian show, The Dewarists.
The fifth song, "Xizi She Knows", was recorded during Heap's six-week trip at Hangzhou, China.[4] The sixth song, "Me, the Machine", was recorded using the musical gloves. The seventh song, "You Know Where to Find Me", was recorded in London and is thematically about the River Thames.[5] The eighth song, "Telemiscommunications", is a collaboration with Canadian house producer deadmau5which is included in his sixth album Album Title Goes Here.
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Imogen Heap.
| No. | Title | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Lifeline" | 4:47 | |
| 2. | "Propeller Seeds" | 3:52 | |
| 3. | "Neglected Space" | 5:20 | |
| 4. | "Minds Without Fear" (with Vishal-Shekhar) | 3:41 | |
| 5. | "Xizi She Knows" | 4:41 | |
| 6. | "You Know Where to Find Me" | 4:56 | |
| 7. | "Telemiscommunications" (with deadmau5) | 4:07 | |
| 8. | "The Listening Chair" | ||
| 9. | "Me, the Machine" | ||
| 10. | "Entanglement" | ||
| 11. | "Run-Time" | ||
| 12. | "Climb to Sakteng" | ||
| 13. | "Cycle Song" | ||
| 14. | "TBA (new song)" |
