The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide. After the Norman Conquest of England hidage assessments were recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 and the Norman kings continued to use them (with amendments) for tax assessments until the end of the 12th century.

The hide was not a fixed area of land.

The Original Meaning of Hide[link]

The Anglo-Saxon word for a hide was hid (or its synonym hiwisc). Both words are believed to be derived from the same root hiwan, which meant "family".

Bede in his Ecclesiastical History (c.731) describes the extent of a territory by the number of families which it supported, as (for instance), in Latin, terra x familiarum meaning 'a territory of ten families'. In the Anglo-Saxon version of the same work hid or hiwan is used in place of terra ... familiarum. Other documents of the period show the same equivalence and it is clear that the word hide originally signified land sufficient for the support of a peasant and his household.^[1]

Development as a unit of taxation[link]

Subsequently the hide lost its original meaning and became the basis of an artificial system of assessment of land for purposes of taxation. Many details of the development of the system during the 350 years which elapsed between the time of Bede and the Domesday Book remain obscure. According to Sir Frank Stenton, "Despite the work of many great scholars the hide of early English texts remains a term of elusive meaning."^[2] By the end of the Anglo-Saxon period it was a measure of 'the taxable worth of an area of land', but it had no fixed relationship to its acreage, the number of ploughteams working on it, or its population; nor was it limited to the arable land on an estate. According to Bailey, "It is a commonplace that the hide in 1086 had a very variable extent on the ground; the old concept of 120 acres cannot be sustained."^[3]

A number of early documents referring to hides have survived, but these can only be seen as steps in the development of the concept of the hide and do not enable us to see the full story.

The document known as the Tribal Hidage is a very early list thought to date possibly from the 7th century, but known only from a later and unreliable manuscript. It is a list of tribes and small kingdoms owing tribute to an overlord and of the proportionate liability or quota imposed on each of them. This is expressed in terms of hides, though we have no details as to how these were arrived at nor how they were converted into a cash liability.^[4]

Hide assessments could also be used for the apportionment of other obligations to which a community was liable, not only a pecuniary liability. The Burghal Hidage (early 10th century) is a list of boroughs giving the hide assessments of neighbouring districts which were liable to contribute to the defence of the borough, each contributing to the maintenance and manning of the fortifications in proportion to the number of hides for which they answered.^[5]

The County Hidage (early 11th century) lists the total number of hides to be assessed on each county and it seems that by this time at least the total number of hides in a given area was imposed from above. Each county was assigned a round number of hides, for which it would be required to answer. For instance, at an early date in the 11th century, Northamptonshire was assigned 3,200 hides, while Staffordshire was assigned only 500.^[6] This number was then divided up between the hundreds in the county. Theoretically there were 100 hides in each hundred, but this proportion was often not maintained, for example because of changes in the hundreds or in the estates comprising them or because assessments were altered when the actual cash liability was perceived as being too high or too low or for other reasons now unknown.

The hides within each hundred were then divided between villages, estates or manors, usually in blocks or multiples of 5 hides, though this was not always maintained. Differences from the norm could result from estates being moved from one hundred to another, or from adjustments to the size of an estate or alterations in the number of hides for which an estate should answer.^[7]

As each local community had the task of deciding how its quota of hides should be divided between the lands held by that community, different communities used different criteria, depending on the type of land held and on the way in which an individual's wealth was reckoned within that community, it is self-evident that no single comprehensive definition is possible.

After the Conquest[link]

Domesday Book, recording the results of the survey made on the orders of King William I in 1086, states in hides (or carucates or sulungs as the case might be) the assessed values of estates throughout the area covered by the survey. Usually it gives this information for 1086 and also for the time of Edward the Confessor (i.e. shortly before the Conquest), but some counties were different and only showed this information for one of those dates. By that time the assessments showed many anomalies.^[8]

Sometimes the assessment in hides is given both for the whole manor and for the demesne land (i.e.the lord's own demesne) included in it.

The Norman kings continued after the Conquest to use the system which they found in place. Geld was levied at intervals on the existing hidage assessments. Dr Sally Harvey has suggested that the ploughland data in Domesday Book was intended to be used for a complete re-assessment but, if so, it was never actually made.^[9] The Pipe Rolls, where they are available, show that levies were based largely on the old assessments, though with some amendments and exemptions.

The last recorded levy was for 1162-3 during the reign of Henry II, but the tax was not formally abolished and Henry II thought of using it again between 1173 and 1175. The old assessments were used for a tax on land in 1193-4 to raise money for King Richard's ransom.^[10]

Relationship to other similar terms[link]

A hide was made up of four virgates. A similar measure was used in the northern Danelaw, known as a carucate, consisting of eight bovates, and Kent used a system based on a "sulung", consisting of four yokes, which was larger than the hide and on occasion treated as equivalent to two hides.^[11] These measures had a different origin, signifying the amount of land which could be cultivated by one plough team as opposed to a family holding, but all later became artificial fiscal assessments.

References[link]

Notes[link]

Books mentioned in the Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

Much work has been done investigating the hidation of various counties and also in attempts to discover more about the origin and development of the hide and the purposes for which it was used, but without producing many clear conclusions which would help the general reader. Those requiring more information may wish to consult the following works in addition to those quoted in the Notes:

• Darby, Henry C. & Campbell, Eila M. J. (1961) The Domesday Geography of South Eastern England
• Darby, Henry C. & Maxwell, I. S. (1962) The Domesday Geography of Northern England
• Darby, Henry C. & Finn, R. Welldon (1967) The Domesday Geography of South West England
• Darby, Henry C. (1971) The Domesday Geography of Eastern England, 3rd ed.
• Darby, Henry C. & Terrett, I. B. (1971) The Domesday Geography of Midland England, 2nd ed.
• McDonald, John & Snooks, Graeme D. (1985) "Were the Tax Assessments of Domesday England Artificial?: the Case of Essex", in: The Economic History Review, New series, Vol. 38, No. 3, [Aug. 1985], pp. 352–72
• Snooks, Graeme D. and McDonald, John. Domesday Economy: a New Approach to Anglo-Norman History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986 ISBN 0-19-828524-8
• Hamshere, J. D. (1987) "Regressing Domesday Book: Tax Assessments of Domesday England, in: The Economic History Review, New series, Vol. 40, No. 2. [May 1987], pp. 247-51
• Leaver, R. A. (1988) "Five Hides in Ten Counties: a Contribution to the Domesday Regression Debate", in: The Economic History Review, New series, Vol. 41, No. 4, [Nov. 1988], pp. 525–42
• Bridbury, A. R. (1990) "Domesday Book: a Re-interpretation", in: English Historical Review, Vol. 105, No. 415. [Apr. 1990], pp. 284–309

Look up hide in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Hide or hides may refer to:

• Hiding, concealment
• hide (musician) (1964–1998), Japanese musician from the band X Japan
• Hide (skin), the cured skin of an animal
• Hide (unit), a traditional unit of land area used in early medieval England
• "Hide" (Creed song), a song from the album Weathered by Creed
• "Hide" (Joy Williams song), from the album Genesis
• "Hide", a song by Dinosaur Jr. from 1993 album Where You Been
• "Hide", a song by Red
• Hide (album), a 2010 album by experimental band Foetus
• The Hide, a 2008 thriller film based on the stage play The Sociable Plover by Tim Whitnall
• Hide (film), a 2008 action film starring Rachel Miner, Christian Kane and Polly Shannon
• Bird hide, a structure for observing birds without causing disturbance
• Hide (TV Movie), a 2011 TNT movie based on novel by Lisa Gardner, starring Carla Gugino, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, and Kevin Alejandro

Hides[link]

• Jack Hides (1906–1938), Australian explorer

See also[link]

• Hyde (disambiguation)
• Rawhide (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Look up unit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Unit may refer to:

Mathematics[link]

• Unit (ring theory), an element that is invertible with respect to ring multiplication
• 1 (number), the unit number
• Unit vector, a vector with length equal to 1

Science and technology[link]

• Units (software), a software program for unit conversion
• Units of measurement, a standardized quantity of measurement of a physical quantity
• Enzyme unit
• Unit operation, a basic step in a chemical plant process
• Functional unit, a component of a computer system such as the CPU
• Unit of blood, a measurement in blood transfusion equal to one pint or 450 ml
• Unit of alcohol, 10 millilitres of pure ethanol in the United Kingdom
• Rack unit, a measure to describe the height of rack-mounted computer equipment
• Geological unit or rock unit, a volume of identifiable rock or ice
• In statistics:
  • Unit of observation, a type of entity (e.g. person, house, neighborhood) specifying the level at which data is collected
  • Unit of analysis, a type of entity (e.g. person, house, neighborhood) specifying the level at which data is analyzed
  • Statistical unit, a single data point, or collection of data points grouped as a single entity, on which statistical analysis is performed

Entertainment and the arts[link]

• UNIT, a fictional military organization in the science fiction television series Doctor Who
• Unit (album), by the Australian band Regurgitator
• Unit (art collective), a British artists' collective
• G-Unit, a hip-hop music group
• The Units, a synthpunk band
• The Unit, an American television series
• Second unit, a team that shoots footage which is of lesser importance for the final motion picture
• Unit of action, a discrete piece of action (or beat) in a theatrical presentation
• UNIT Post Production, a British company
• The Tony Rice Unit, an American bluegrass group

Other uses[link]

• Unit (housing), a self-contained suite of rooms within a set of similar dwellings
• Unit of account, a monetary unit of measurement
• An apartment
• Multiple unit, a passenger train where each carriage has it own motors
• Military unit
• Strategic business unit
• In real time strategy games, an individual (or squad, depending on the game) infantry or vehicle
• Work unit or danwei (单位), a place of employment in China

See also[link]

• UNITA
• Subunit (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Imogen Heap
Background information
Birth name	Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap
Born	(1977-12-09) 9 December 1977 (age 34)
Origin	Havering, Essex, England
Genres	Electronica, alternative, indie, synthpop,[1] folktronica, ambient, dream pop, rock
Occupations	Musician, singer, songwriter, visual artist
Instruments	Vocals, keyboards, array mbira, cello, clarinet, guitar, drums, keytar, nail violin, vocal percussion, synthesizer, sampler, organ, Hang, vocoder
Years active	1997–present
Labels	Almo Sounds (1998–2001) Megaphonic (2005–present) RCA Victor (2006–present)
Associated acts	Frou Frou Urban Species IAMX MIKA
Website	imogenheap.com

Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap ( /ˈɪmədʒɨn ˈhiːp/; born 9 December 1977 in the London Borough of Havering)^[2] is a Grammy Award-winning English singer, composer and songwriter from Havering, Essex. She is known for her work as part of the musical duo Frou Frou and her solo albums, which she writes, produces, and mixes. She has produced three solo albums, the latest of which is 2009's Ellipse, which was a North American chart success and earned Heap two Grammy nominations, winning Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.^[3]

Musical and songwriting style[link]

For her solo work (as well as her work with Frou Frou and Acacia), Heap plays heavily produced and arranged singer-songwriter pop incorporating elements of rock, dance and electronica. As a guest player and collaborator she has played rock (Jeff Beck), hip-hop (Urban Species) and theatre/film music.

A skilled multi-instrumentalist, Heap extensively uses manipulated electronic sounds as an integral part of her music. She also mixes ambient sound into her music (such as the sound of a frying pan in use cooking food, in the background of her song "My Secret Friend") and has commented that "certain sounds give the music a width and a space, and that's important."^[4]

Heap states that her song lyrics come from personal experience, but are not straightforwardly confessional. She has stated "Most of the time, the lyrics are kind of like my secret messages to my friends or my boyfriend or my mum or my dad. I would never tell them that these songs are about them or which specific lyric is about somebody. Often, when I sit down to write a lyric, it is in the heat of the moment, and something has just happened."^[4]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Heap played music from an early age, becoming classically trained in several instruments including piano, cello and clarinet. She attended Friends School, a private, Quaker-run boarding school in Saffron Walden. Heap's mother (an art therapist) and her father (a construction rock retailer) separated when she was twelve. By the age of thirteen, she had begun writing songs.

Heap did not get along well with the music teacher at her boarding school, so she principally taught herself sequencing, music engineering, sampling and production (on Atari computers). She also taught herself to play the guitar and drums, and subsequently two percussion/idiophone instruments, the array mbira and the Hang.^[5] After school, she went on to study at the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon, South London.

Early work as musician (including work with Acacia)[link]

After being introduced to Nik Kershaw by his manager Mickey Modern, Heap and Kershaw recorded four demos that Mickey Modern took to Rondor Music. Consequently, a few months later she signed her first record contract at 18 to independent record label Almo Sounds^[6]. Modern and Wood formed Modernwood Management, and managed Heap until 2006, when Modernwood was dissolved. Wood continues to manage the artist via his new company, Radius Music^[7].

During 1996, Heap began working with an experimental pop band called Acacia, which featured her future collaborator Guy Sigsworth and was fronted by the singer Alexander Nilere. While never a full member of the band, Heap was a guest vocalist (as a counterpart to Nilere) and contributed to various Acacia single and album tracks. One Acacia song, "Maddening Shroud", would later be covered by Frou Frou^[8].

Mickey Modern asked Dennis Arnold to place Imogen in the line up in the 1996 Prince's Trust Concert in Hyde Park, London organized by Harvey Goldsmith. Heap performed four songs between sets by The Who and Eric Clapton.

[edit] 1998–2000: iMegaphone

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Heap's debut album, iMegaphone (an anagram of "Imogen Heap") was a mixture of self-penned and self-produced tracks, alongside tracks co-written and produced with established producers such as David Kahne, former Eurythmic Dave Stewart and Guy Sigsworth. The album was released in 1998 internationally via Almo Sounds, to favorable reviews comparing Heap's angst-filled songs to work by PJ Harvey, Kate Bush and Annie Lennox. Promotion for the record included a tour of America and performances around Europe. Three singles were commercially released in the UK: "Getting Scared", "Shine" and "Come Here Boy". "Oh Me, Oh My" was sent to US radio stations in place of "Shine".

Heap's early success was soon replaced by problems. Almo Sounds cut funding for UK promotion and gave Heap a deadline to deliver songs for her second album. Upon delivery of the songs, she was told that they lacked "hit potential". It was announced that the record label would be sold to Universal and its artists moved to other labels or released. Heap was one of the artists who was dropped from the label, leaving her without a record contract. iMegaphone had, however, been licensed from Almo Sounds to Aozora Records in Japan, who eventually re-released and re-promoted the album in January 2002, featuring "Blanket" and "Aeroplane" (a Frou Frou remix/remake of one of her B-sides, "Airplane" of the Shine single released in 1998). The album featured new packaging, all-new artwork, and a previously unavailable hidden track, entitled "Kidding", recorded live during her 1999 tour.

Copies of the original Almo Sounds release remain rare. A Brazilian label, Trama Records, currently claims to hold the license to the record and has started re-printing copies of the album in limited quantities. The album was released digitally on the US iTunes Music Store in early 2006. After achieving commercial success with her work with Guy Sigsworth as the duo Frou Frou and her second solo album, Speak for Yourself, Heap was able to secure the re-release of iMegaphone.

2001: Interim work[link]

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In the gap between the end of promotion for iMegaphone internationally and the re-promotion, Heap had also begun to think about her second solo album, and had started writing songs, both solo, as well as working with Guy Sigsworth; however, as she was without a record deal, the songs were shelved. During the time when she was unsigned, Heap appeared on two UK singles, "Meantime" (a track written by her former Acacia colleagues Guy Sigsworth and Alexander Nilere for the soundtrack to the independent British film, G:MT – Greenwich Mean Time) and "Blanket" (a collaboration with Urban Species). In 2000, Heap sang on the album You Had It Coming by Jeff Beck.

2002–2003: Frou Frou[link]

Heap had kept in contact with Guy Sigsworth (who had co-written and produced "Getting Scared" from iMegaphone) and this led to the pair of them establishing the collaborative project Frou Frou.

The initial concept for Frou Frou was Sigsworth's, and the project was to have been an album written and produced by her with each track featuring a different singer, songwriter, poet or rapper. Heap explains that Sigsworth invited her over to his studio to write lyrics to a four-bar motif he had, with one condition – that she include the word "love" somewhere. The first line she came up with was "lung of love, leaves me breathless", and the Details album track, "Flicks" was born. A week later, Sigsworth phoned Heap up again, and together they wrote and recorded the future single "Breathe In".

Throughout the process, Frou Frou work was an equal partnership, with Heap and Sigsworth making equal contributions to writing, arrangement, production and instrumental performance and Heap handling all of the vocals.

In August 2002, they released the Details album and singles "Breathe In", "It's Good To Be In Love", and "Must Be Dreaming" (although the latter two were not commercially available). The album was critically acclaimed, but did not enjoy the commercial success that they had been hoping for.

In late 2003, after an extensive promotional tour of the UK, Europe and the US, the duo were told that their record label, Island Records would not be picking up the option for a second album.

Heap and Sigsworth remain firm friends, and have worked together since the project, including their temporary re-formation in late 2003, when they covered the Bonnie Tyler classic, "Holding Out for a Hero", which was featured during the credits of the movie Shrek 2 after Jennifer Saunders version in the film. Frou Frou saw a resurgence in popularity in 2004, when their album track "Let Go" was featured in the film Garden State.

In a 2005 interview Heap said of frou frou "(it) was really like a kind of little holiday from my own work. Guy and I, we have always worked together, and then over the years, it became clear that we wanted to do a whole album together. It was very organic and spontaneous - just one of those wonderful things that happens. But there was never a mention of a second record from either of us, and not uncomfortably. We're just both kind of free spirits. I love to work with a lot of different people, but I was also just gagging to see what I could do on my own. But I'm sure in the future, Guy and I will get back together to do another record, or to record a few songs together."^[4]

[edit] 2004–2005: The O.C. and Speak for Yourself

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Performing at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

In December 2003, Heap announced on her Web site that she was going to write and produce her second solo album, using her site as a blog to publicise progress.

Heap set herself a deadline of one year to make the album, booking a session to master the album one year ahead in December 2004. She re-mortgaged her flat to fund production costs, including renting a studio at Atomic Studios, London (previously inhabited by UK grime artist, Dizzee Rascal), and purchasing instruments.

At the end of 2004, with the album completed, Heap premiered two album tracks online, selling them prior to the album's release – "Just for Now" and "Goodnight and Go".

In April 2005, The O.C. featured the vocoded-vocal track, "Hide and Seek" in the closing scenes of their season two finale. The track was released immediately to digital download services, such as iTunes, in the US, where it charted. The track was released to iTunes UK on 5 July 2005 (the same day as the UK airing of the season finale) and entered the official UK download chart.

Heap made a decision to put out the album on her own in the UK, starting her own record company, titled Megaphonic Records. The album was titled Speak for Yourself.

Speak for Yourself was released in the UK on 18 July 2005 on CD and iTunes UK, where it entered the top 10 chart. The initial 10,000 physical copies pressed sold out, distributed through large and independent record stores and Heap's own online shop.

In August 2005, Heap announced that she had licensed Speak for Yourself to Sony BMG imprint RCA Victor for the album release in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The album was released in November 2005 and debuted at #144 in the Billboard Top 200 album chart. In concert, Heap performed solo, controlling the sound through her Apple PowerBook laptop, as well as singing and playing the piano and array mbira.

She returned from the US, already having sold over 120,000 copies.

2006–2007: The year of the 'White Rabbit'[link]

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Heap also announced, on her return to the UK, that she had signed a deal for the album to be released internationally, as well as re-promoted in the UK, with a new imprint of Sony BMG, White Rabbit, run by former Sony BMG UK A&R vice president Nick Raphael. The deal meant that the album could have the promotional backing provided by a respected major label, whilst Heap retained sole control and the team she established for Megaphonic Records.

Speak for Yourself was re-released on the label on 24 April 2006, ahead of a full promotional push on 15 May, a week after the second single, "Goodnight and Go", was commercially released in the UK.

In August 2006, Heap performed a set at the V Festival, where it was announced that "Headlock" was to be the third single to be lifted from the album, and released on 16 October 2006 in the UK.

In late September and early October, Heap embarked on a tour of the UK, holding a competition on MySpace for different support acts for each venue, before touring throughout Canada and the US in November and December. This was her first tour of North America that included a band, incorporating upright bass, percussion, and support acts Kid Beyond and Levi Weaver on beatbox and guitar, respectively. In December 2006, Heap was featured on the front page of The Green Room magazine.

On 7 December 2006, Heap received two Grammy nominations for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards, one for Best New Artist and the other for Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media for "Can't Take It In".

[edit] 2007–2009: Ellipse

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Throughout the creation of her album Ellipse, Heap posted vlogs, or VBlogs as she called them, through YouTube.^[9] She used these to comment on the album as well as update on its release. The album's release was pushed back multiple times. These included Heap being asked to perform at the annual event PopTech in October 2008. During the event, she premiered one of her album's songs, "Wait it Out".

Heap announced on her Twitter page that Ellipse's first single would be "First Train Home". On 17 August 2009 Heap made the entire album Ellipse available for live streaming via her webpage.

Ellipse was released in the United Kingdom on 24 August, and in the United States on 25 August.

[edit] 2011–present: Heapsongs

On 14 March 2011 Heap officially 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 has stated that the concept for this record will be to record one track over a two week period every 2 months. Each song and video will be released immediately.^[10] According to her website, the album will be completed in roughly 1.5 years.

The first song, initially entitled #heapsong1 and later retitled "Lifeline", premiered worldwide on 28 March 2011 via Ustream^[11] 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".

On 6 May 2011 Heap tweeted that she and Deadmau5 were working on a collaboration. The song is tentatively titled "Telemisscommunications".^[12][13][14]

List of heapsongs so far[link]

1. heapsong1 is entitled "Lifeline" and was released on 30 March 2011.
2. heapsong2 is entitled "Propeller Seeds" and was released on 5 July 2011.
3. heapsong3 is entitled "Neglected Space" and was released on 17 October 2011.
4. heapsong4 is entitled "Minds Without Fear" and was released on 21 October 2011. It was the first song to be featured on 2011 Indian show, The Dewarists.
5. heapsong5 is entitled "Xizi She Knows" and was released on 24 January 2012. It is the fifth song off the forthcoming album overall.^[15]
6. heapsong6 is entitled "Me The Machine" and was performed live by Heap on 22 April 2012. The song premiered along with the film, Love the Earth, as part of Earth Day 2012.

Recordings for television and film[link]

Heap has recorded several songs for films, including a cover of the Classics IV hit "Spooky" for the soundtrack to the Reese Witherspoon film Just Like Heaven. Her song "Hide and Seek" was featured in The Last Kiss, starring Zach Braff (who used her former band Frou Frou's "Let Go" in his 2004 film Garden State), and was also used in a 2007 episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Shia LaBeouf. "The Moment I Said It" was also used in the episode "Seven Seconds" of the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds.

In 2004, while recording her second solo album, she was commissioned to record a cover of a short nursery rhyme for the HBO television series, Six Feet Under, entitled "I'm A Lonely Little Petunia (In An Onion Patch)".

In late 2005, Heap was asked to write a track for the soundtrack of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe entitled "Can't Take It In", when a track that fellow Brit singer Dido submitted was deemed unfitting. Heap's track is played at the end of the film in an orchestral version produced by Heap and Harry Gregson Williams, who scored the movie. In addition, she composed a track for the film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, but it was deemed to be too dark in tone for the film. Instead, it was included in her album Ellipse as "2-1". 2-1 has also featured in CSI Miami (Season 8 Episode 9), as well as promotional trailers for the film The Lovely Bones.

In March 2006, Heap completed a track about locusts, entitled "Glittering Cloud", for a CD of music about the plagues of Egypt entitled Plague Songs, accompanying The Margate Exodus project, for musical director Brian Eno.

Heap recorded an a cappella version of the Leonard Cohen track "Hallelujah", for the season three finale of The O.C., and her "Not Now But Soon" was included on the original soundtrack for the NBC show, Heroes.

Song usage[link]

Imogen Heap and Frou Frou songs have been featured in various TV shows, movies, advertisements, and marching band productions, notably including CSI, The OC, SNL, Garden State, and So You Think You Can Dance.

Also notable is the sampling of Heap's song "Hide & Seek" in Jason DeRulo's single "Whatcha Say",^[16] which peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps used Heap's song "Aha" in their 2010 production titled, "Metropolis: The Future is Now"

The Pack rapper Young L's 2001 mixtape 'As I Float: The Great John Nash' makes extensive use of samples of Imogen Heap songs on nearly every track.

Collaborations[link]

Heap has collaborated as a guest vocalist, co-writer, remixer or producer with many various artists throughout her career. Among them co-writing and producing By The Time for Mika and Now or Never for Josh Groban. The diverse range of other musicians Heap has worked with include IAMX, Jeff Beck, Temposhark, LHB, J. Peter Schwalm, Way Out West, Jon Bon Jovi, Mich Gerber, Sean Lennon, Urban Species, Matt Willis, Jon Hopkins, MIKA, Acacia, Britney Spears, Nik Kershaw, Blue October, Joshua Radin, Nitin Sawhney, I Fight Dragons and Deadmau5.^[12][13][14]

Use of technology[link]

Heap is an outspoken advocate of using new technology to interact and collaborate with her fans. In August 2009 she used Vokle, an online auditorium, to take questions from listeners over video chat.^[17]

Imogen also teamed up with Vokle to hold open cello auditions for her North American tour. She provided sheet music for “Aha” on her website and encouraged local fans to learn the part and audition live via Vokle. Imogen would then pick the cellist to accompany her for that particular city - sometimes with the help of viewers and her puppet Lion, Harold.

In 2010 Imogen opened her online auditions to singers and choirs and invited them to audition via submitted YouTube videos to accompany her on stage as she performed the song "Earth" from Ellipse. The winner of each local show was also invited to do a 15 minute gig of their own. In the studio, the official album recording of "Earth" was made up entirely of numerous tracks of vocals.

July 2011 saw Imogen unveil a pair of in development, high-tech musical gloves at the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh, Scotland.^[18] Inspired by the VAMP ^[19] system developed by Elly Jessop at MIT’s media lab, Imogen set out to develop the musical gloves in collaboration with Thomas Mitchell, a lecturer in music systems at the University of the West of England, Bristol. The gloves combine sensors developed by 5DT,^[20] x-io Technologies ^[21] with Shure microphones.

Using nothing but hand gestures, Imogen is currently able to amplify/record/loop acoustic instruments and her voice, play virtual instruments and manipulate these sounds live. Imogen has for many years been working toward a less constricting live set up which enables her to be mobile while performing live multiple musical production tasks, songs and improvising spontaneously without the need 'to go back to basecamp'. The gloves enable the audience to instinctively understand and connect with the process of what's going on on stage - the 'hidden' 50% of her performance. This is part of a larger audio/visual performance project Imogen has been working towards for a couple of years with the aim of touring in 2013.

Charity[link]

In 2008 she participated in a music album called Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace, which is an initiative to support Tibet, Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso and to underline the human rights situation in Tibet. The album was issued on 5 August via iTunes and on 19 August in music stores around the world.^[22] On 12 October 2008, Heap also participated in "Run 10k: Cancer Research UK," placing fifth of the women in the actual run and raising over £1000 for the cause with the help of her fans.

In 2008 Imogen was asked to perform at POP!Tech in Camden, Maine (US). There she performed selections from her then forthcoming album Ellipse. After her set and an encouraging plea for another performance later in the conference by the audience and organizers, Imogen agreed. Having nothing else prepared though, she decided to improvise a song on the spot with parameters (tempo, key) suggested by the audience. After the show, Imogen was asked by a Poptech attendee if she would give the newly created piece of music to his charity. A ‘lightbulb’ moment occurred in Heap’s head and she saw the potential in doing these improvised pieces for local charities at each show during the tour she would soon begin.

The first of these songs materialized at Imogen’s show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, in London on the 19th of February 2010. Using the same parameters and audience participation from POP!Tech, Imogen improvised a song titled, "The Shepherdess". After the show, Imogen made the song available worldwide as a digital download on her website asking for donations per download. All proceeds went to the Great Ormond Street Hospital where Imogen was diagnosed with osteomyelitis and underwent life-saving surgery as a little girl. Loving the concept, Imogen rolled this out for her North American Tour, donating all the proceeds for each song to a local charity from that city.

In 2011 Imogen was set to play a benefit concert in New Zealand's Christchurch city to help rebuild the Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti High School, following a severe 6.3 aftershock in February originating from the 7.1 earthquake that struck the Canterbury region in September 2010. The concert was held at the Burnside High Aurora Centre, also featuring performances from Roseanna Gamlen-Greene, and The Harbour Union including The Eastern, Lindon Puffin, Delaney Davidson and The Unfaithful Ways.^[23]

Live 4 X[link]

In 2010, Imogen Heap partnered with Thomas Ermacora of Bubbletank^[24] to organize a series of online charitable events called Live 4 X.

The initial event was inspired by the 2010 Pakistan floods. Triggered by monsoon rains, the floods left approximately one-fifth of the country of Pakistan underwater, affecting over 14 million people and damaging or destroying over 900,000 homes. Teaming up with Richard Branson’s Virgin Unite and Vokle.com, Heap and Ermacorda create an online webcast/fundraiser to raise awareness and money for the flood stricken. Hosted by comedian, creative, and internet personality Ze Frank, the webcast included a series of conversations with Cameron Sinclair of Architecture for Humanity, Gary Slutkin, and Anders Wilhelmson, (and later Richard Branson and Mary Robinson) with live performances by musicians Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Kate Havnevik, KT Tunstall, Josh Groban, Kaki King, Zoe Keating and Mark Isham.

The premise of Live 4 X thus established, Heap has since continued to refine the model, organize, host, and perform a number of charitable, streaming-live, concert events. By integrating live entertainment with educated discussion and technology, Live 4 X became an effective charitable outreach tool.

Following the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of 2011, Heap told Washington Times Communities journalist and recording artist Jennifer Grassman, that she intended to continue organizing Live 4 X events to benefit various charitable causes.^[25]

Catalog of Live 4 X events to date:

• August 31, 2010 – Live 4 Pakistan raised funds for flood relief and recovery in that region. Musicians included Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Kate Havnevik, KT Tunstall, Josh Groban, and Zoe Keating. In an ironic turn of events, Heap, was kept from appearing on Live 4 Pakistan due to Hurricane Earl which at the time was progressing along the US eastern seaboard. Heap, stranded and unable to get an internet connection, later posted a video message as well as a performance of her song “Wait It Out” from Ellipse.^[26]
• February 3, 2011 – Live 4 Capetown^[27]
• April 11, 2011 – Live 4 Sendai raised funds for Japanese tsunami recovery following the disastrous Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011. The event was also used to solicit rebuilding design ideas on behalf of Architecture for Humanity. Performers included Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, KT Tunstall and Jamie Cullum and hosted by Ze Frank.^[28]

Film[link]

After touring for nearly two years straight for her album Speak for Yourself Imogen continued her travels, this time with only a laptop and video camera on hand as she began her writing trip for her next album. Nine weeks later she returned to the UK with the beginnings of the award-winning Ellipse and footage (as requested by a fan to film the making of the album) from its quiet beginning. Back in Essex, Imogen sought the talents of long-time friend and film maker Justine Pearsall to continue documenting the creation of the album. The film documents every moment of joy, excitement, frustration, and even the renovation of the Imogen’s childhood home including turning her old playroom into her new home studio. Everything In-Between: The Story of Ellipse was released in November 2010.

On November 5, 2010 at the Royal Albert Hall, Heap conducted an orchestra (including friends and family) as they performed an original composition by Imogen herself orchestrated by Andrew Skeet. Heap also worked with London Contemporary Voices at this time, a scratch choir formed for this concert, which continues as a new choir in its own right. It was the score to the concept film Love The Earth - in creative partnership and co-production with Thomas Ermacora again for another Bubbletank production - in which fans were invited to submit video footage highlighting all of the breathtaking qualities of nature to be selected and edited into a film. This performance was broadcasted live worldwide.

In March for the Birds' Eye Festival at the Birds Eye View Film Festival at the Southbank Centre, Imogen composed in collaboration with Andrew Skeet an a cappella choral score to the first ever surrealist film ‘The Seashell and the Clergyman’ (Germaine Dulac, 1927) with the Holst Singers, a programme repeated at the Reverb Festival at the Roundhouse in February 2012 and in the Sage, Gateshead.

Heap also performed in the Film and Music Arena at Latitude Festival in 2011.

Discography[link]

• 1998: iMegaphone
• 2005: Speak for Yourself
• 2009: Ellipse
• 2012: Heapsongs

Frou Frou[link]

• Details (2002 • Island Records/MCA/Universal) (UK: #128)
• "Breathe In" (single) (2002 • Island Records/Universal) (UK: #44)
• "It's Good to be in Love" (single) (2002 • Island Records/Universal)
• "Must be Dreaming" (single) (2002 • Island Records/Universal)
• "Let Go" (Promotional single)

Guest appearances[link]

• Hate EP by Acacia (1996 • Radar Records)
• Sway EP by Acacia (1996 • Radar Records)
• Maddening Shroud EP by Acacia (1997 • WEA)
• Cradle by Acacia – all tracks except "Wire" (1997 • WEA)
• Blanket by Urban Species – "Blanket" and "Predictably Unpredictable" (1998)
• Amor Fati by Mich Gerber – "Embers of Love", "Sirens Call (Qishm)" and "Mare" (2000)
• ¡Viva Nueva! by Rustic Overtones – "Valentine's Day Massacre" (2001 • Tommy Boy Records)
• You Had It Coming by Jeff Beck – "Dirty Mind" and "Rollin' and Tumblin'" (2001 • Sony Music)
• Tell 'Em Who We Are by LHB^{[disambiguation needed ]} – "Coming Up For Air" (2003 • Telstar TV)
• Contact Note by Jon Hopkins – "Second Sense" (2004 • Just Music)
• It's Better To Have Loved EP by Temposhark – "Not That Big (Metronomy Remix)" (2005 • Paper & Glue)
• Foiled by Blue October – "Congratulations" (2006 • Universal Records)
• Musikain by J. Peter Schwalm – "P.I.N." (2006 • Musikain Records)
• The Invisible Line by Temposhark – "Not That Big" (2007 • Paper & Glue)
• London Undersound by Nitin Sawhney – "Bring It Home" (2008 • Cooking Vinyl)
• Kingdom of Welcome Addiction by IAMX – "My Secret Friend" (2009 • Metropolis Records)
• The Boy Who Knew Too Much by Mika – "By The Time" (2009 • Casablanca Records)
• Live at Ronnie Scott's - Jeff Beck - (2008 • Eagle Records) - (2009 • DVD)

Compilation appearances[link]

• New Dawn (Class of '94) – "Missing You" – (1994)
• I Still Know What You Did Last Summer soundtrack – "Getting Scared" – (1998 • Warner Music Group)
• Virtual Sexuality soundtrack – "Come Here Boy" – (1998 • EMI)
• G:MT – Greenwich Mean Time soundtrack – "Mean Time" (with GMT) – (1999 • Island Records/Universal)
• Serve Chilled – "Blanket" (with Urban Species) – (1999 • Hed Kandi)
• Women Talking Dirty soundtrack – "Getting Scared" – (2001 • Polygram International)
• American Psycho 2: All American Girl soundtrack – "Angry Angel" – (2002 • Rondor Music (London) Ltd)
• Garden State – "Let Go" – (2004 • Epic Records/Sony BMG)
• Nearing Grace Soundtrack – "The Walk" – (2005 • Sony BMG)
• Music from the OC: Mix 4 – "Goodnight and Go" – (2005 • Warner Music Group)
• Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends – "I'm A Lonely Little Petunia (In An Onion Patch)" – (2005 • Astralwerks/EMI)
• Just Like Heaven Soundtrack – "Spooky" – (2005 • Sony BMG)
• Music from the OC: Mix 5 – "Hide and Seek" – (2005 • Warner Music Group)
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – "Can't Take It In" – (2005 • Disney Records/EMI)
• The Last Kiss soundtrack – "Hide and Seek" – (2005 • Lakeshore Pictures)
• Plague Songs – "Glittering Clouds (Locusts)" – (2006 • 4AD)
• So You Think You Can Dance (US) – "Hide and Seek" – (2006)
• So You Think You Can Dance (US) – "Let Go" – (2006)
• The Black Donnellys – "The Moment I Said It" – (2007)
• In Search of Sunrise 6 – "Hide and Seek" (Tiëstos' In Search Of Sunrise Remix) – (2007)
• The Holiday – "Just For Now" and "Let Go" (Under 'Frou Frou') – (2006)
• So You Think You Can Dance – "The Moment I Said It" – (2007)
• Heroes Original Soundtrack – "Not Now, But Soon" – (2008 • NBC Records)
• Criminal Minds – "The Moment I Said It" – (2008)
• Songs For Tibet – The Art of Peace' – "Hide & Seek 2" – (2008)
• Greys Anatomy – "Bad Body Double" – (2009)
• So You Think You Can Dance (US) - "Aha!" - (2009)
• The Vampire Diaries - "Wait it Out" - (2009)
• Melrose Place - "Aha!" - (2009)
• Powder Blue - "Blanket" - (2009)
• Chuck – "Wait it Out" – (2010)
• CSI: NY - "Wait it Out" - (2010)
• Made in Chelsea - "Goodnight and Go" (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Imogen Heap

• Official website
• London Contemporary Voices Choir