Imogen Heap
Sparks

When Imogen Heap sets to work on a new album, it's known that she doesn't mind taking her time, to the point that it's natural to wonder when and if her projects following the recently released ones will ever see the light of day: this already happened with "Ellipse" in 2009, released four years after "Speak for Yourself", which already distanced her true solo debut "iMegaphone" by a good seven years, and it happened again with "Sparks", an album whose production was as long and special for various reasons. Fans of the singer were indeed allowed to follow step by step the evolution of the individual songs, which theoretically should have been released regularly one every three months, a timeframe that obviously stretched and did not involve the entire tracklist of "Sparks", partly to avoid turning the project into a sort of greatest hits rather than a proper album, and partly for purely technical reasons: the album was born as the product of a long journey that Imogen undertook across Asia, as well as various experiences that inspired her in composing and experimenting with new recording technologies, all factors that ended up delaying the album's release, which in theory was supposed to be in September 2012. Was it worth the wait then? Has "Sparks" finally been worth all those years of waiting?

Without delaying too much, it can be stated with confidence, yes. Because it's true, this album too, like the previous "Ellipse", suffers a bit from the long production period, perhaps being overly polished in every aspect: there's not a vocalization, a sound, anything out of place. Here, however, compared to its 2009 predecessor, the experimentation and use of particular musical instruments and sounds give a burst of spontaneity that makes everything seem less artificial than one might expect, and among 3D audio recordings ("Propeller Seeds", to be listened to strictly with headphones!), sampled atmospheres with an oriental flavor (the instrumental "Cycle Song" and "Climb to Sakteng") and special gloves that turn the wearer into a human arpeggiator (the Mi.Mu Gloves that can be heard in "Me the Machine"), there is truly something to be amazed at with every single song and its related video. And what about the pieces themselves? Nothing, except that Imogen hasn't lost her touch in creating intimate and enveloping music with her highly refined and always present electronics (listen to the beautiful "Entanglement" for instance), proving that the project isn't just fluff, but beyond the use of conception and composition methods that are in some ways innovative and original, there is substance, and pieces like the tribal "Minds Without Fear", the magical "The Beast", and the lively "Xizi She Knows" (for which microphones were placed all over Hangzhou, recording its life over a day) are there to prove it, as well as the splendid "You Know Where to Find Me" and the whispered "Neglected Space".

In case it wasn't clear, "Sparks" is therefore an album to listen to in its entirety, from the first to the last track, without skipping any, given that they all deserve it, and behind almost each of them are ways of conceiving them that could make history or go out of style soon, but, considering how Heap constantly and passionately follows the technological developments in music, you can be sure they won't go unnoticed. Those who simply want to listen to an album composed of beautiful songs regardless of all this will still find in their hands pieces excellently arranged and written and splendidly performed by one of the most unique and deserving artists currently in circulation.