Playlist: Imogen Heap

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 13:17:04

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Imogen Heap is a 2007 Grammy nominee for Best New Artist, but don't let that fool you -- she's been making her electronically embellished yet deeply personal music for a decade, both as a solo artist and as one half of the duo Frou Frou. It just took the haunting, multitracked vocals of her hit "Hide and Seek" to make the Grammy people (and many others) to sit up and take notice.

So what does a classically trained pianist and electro-pop ingenue listen to during her downtime? We asked Heap to make us a mixtape of some of her favorite songs (click the song titles to hear clips, where available)....

1. Aphex Twin - "Windowlicker"
"Playful and haunting. I love to play this while cycling around the London city lights at night. It gets me to places quicker."

2. Arve Henriksen - "Viewing Infinite Space"
"I love Arve! This whole album [Sakuteiki] is just gorgeous. I shed a good few tears when he played at 93 Feet East in London a couple of years back."

3. Arvo Part - "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten"
"This is my absolute favourite piece of classical music. Every time I hear it I'm put in a trance unable to do anything else other than let it take me over."

4. Avril - "As the Music Stops"
"I really love this guy's albums. And on this particular song I love how the crackling fire becomes the rhythm track."

5. Bobby Darin - "More"
"For me it's the ultimate love song."

6. Coppe - "Shabondama"
"I love this girl! She also plays this instrument I do too called the Array Mbira (though not on this song). The instrument maker Bill Wesley put us in touch. This song puts me in a cheeky mood. I love the vocal manipulations. So much fun."

7. Magnet - "Where Happiness Lives"
"This what the first song I heard from Magnet. It lifts me. I play it on my iPod a lot on tube journeys. It makes me feel like I'm going somewhere exciting."

8. Squarepusher - "Kill Robok"
"This piece gets me making fists in the air at each and every 180 degree turns it makes. A rabid electronic beast! Can we go again?"

9. The Muppets - "Mahna Mahna"
"It turns me into a complete loon and suddenly I'm 8 again."

10. Zoe Keating - "Natoma - Sun Will Set"
"I bought this album after hearing some snippets on her website. Zoe is on tour with me right now (I'm a lucky gal) and every night she blows me away. This is the one that is playing in my head when I wake up after a show night."

Imogen Heap's latest album, Speak For Yourself, is available now in the ARTISTdirect Store.