Sparks is the fourth studio album by English singer Imogen Heap. The album was released, via Megaphonic Records on 18 August 2014, in three editions: a standard edition, a deluxe two-CD edition and a super deluxe box set.
Background
Sparks 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'. Heap stated that the procedure for the forthcoming album would be to produce tracks three-monthly, with each recorded over a fortnight and released with a video, successively, upon completion. On 23 March 2011, Heap began referring to "Lifeline", which previously had the working title "#heapsong1". Five days later, on 28 March, the track was mastered during the morning and premiered worldwide that evening, with a live Tim Exile-remix, via Ustream. Two days later, on 30 March, a "Lifeline" digital download was released, via Heap's website and online retailers. Alongside the download a twelve-page "3DiCD - Streemliner" package was released, a 3D animated interactive CD incorporating images, an instrumental version of "Lifeline", the "seeds and solos only" version and "heap speaks seeds and solos". The song is a tribute to victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. "Propeller Seeds" was recorded using 3D audio effects and was released 8 July 2011, on Megaphonic Records. "Neglected Space" incorporates concepts, characterisations and sounds, from a Clear Village outdoor laboratory, for the restoration of a walled garden in Bedfords Park, North East London, UK "Minds Without Fear" is a collaboration with musical direction duo Vishal–Shekhar and was the first song featured on the eponymous début episode of 2011 television series The Dewarists. "Xizi She Knows" was recorded during Heap's six-week Autumn 2011 trip to Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, ending at West Lake. "Me, the Machine" was recorded using gestural-music wired gloves and premiered as part of Earth Day 2012, together with a re-release of 'the first ever crowdsourced nature film', Love the Earth. On 29 August 2012, "The Listening Chair" was performed at the Royal Albert Hall, South Kensington, London, conducted by American composer Eric Whitacre. "Telemiscommunications" is a collaboration with Canada's electro/progressive house producer deadmau5 and it is included on his sixth album Album Title Goes Here. Recording for "You Know Where to Find Me" began in the Artangel-curated A Room for London, with the Thames Tideway as its main theme and premiered 18 October 2012, on Google+ Hangouts. "Run-Time" is a collaboration with Intel and Reality Jockey Ltd/RjDj to create a jogging app that will be released the following year. However, the project didn't came into fruition as RjDj closed down in 2013. "Climb To Sakteng" and "Cycle Song" are two instrumental heapsongs used for the soundtrack of the documentary film The Happiest Place, A Journey Across Bhutan. The music video for "Cycle Song" and "Climb to Sakteng" premieres on 17 July 2014. The movie, directed by Ben Henretig, premiered on 6 February 2016 at Santa Barbara International Film Festival. On 30 June 2014, Imogen uploaded a vlog on YouTube, confirming that the album would be released on 18 August 2014. However, in UK, it was not released under RCA Records but under her own label, Megaphonic Records, while in US, the record was still released by RCA Records, with pre-orders available for physical editions at Amazon.com while pre-orders for iTunes release became available on 22 July 2014. On the same date, "Run-Time" was released via Imogen's SoundCloud account while the music video for "The Listening Chair" premiered on Times website on 2 July 2014. "Entanglement" premiered on 22 July 2014 on KCSN Radio. "The Beast" premiered on 2 August 2014 on BBC 6 Music. As of August 2014, with the exception of the videos for "Lifeline", "Propeller Seeds", "Neglected Space", "Xizi She Knows" and "You Know Where to Find Me"; the videos of "Me the Machine", "The Listening Chair", "Cycle Song", "Climb to Sakteng", "Run-Time", "Entanglement", and "The Beast" were yet to be made available on Heap's Vevo channel despite already being available on her own YouTube channel. According to Heap, all 14 videos are available in the box set, which would be delivered from 11 August.
