On Wednesday night I saw Imogen Heap perform at Massey Hall in Toronto.
I was blown away.
Her two opening acts, Levi Weaver and Kid Beyond were outstanding. They then joined Imogen on stage for a few songs, along with two other musicians, and together they rocked the house.
If you haven’t heard about any of these three artists, let me explain something first. All three artists perform by sampling. They use a sampler and record beats, melodies, harmonies, and various sounds live, then replay those sounds on a loop while they record other sequences and start to layer each sound on top of the other. The end result is a musical composition that was recorded live and features various instruments and sounds that were all performed by that one person.
So, for example, Imogen will sing a line of lyrics and record it. Then while that sequence is played on a loop, she sings it once again but at a different pitch, and then once more again, and she becomes her own chorus singing in harmony.
In all honesty, the only way you can understand is if you see it for yourself. This video was recorded by someone at her performance on Tuesday in Montreal. It isn’t the best, but you can see Kid Beyond beatboxing, and Imogen layering a few sounds – look for when she layers her vocals near the end.
What I loved about Imogen, beyond her talent, was the personality that she conveyed. She handled all the technical difficulties with grace and bits of British humour. Her random mumbling actually came across as charming but that may have to do with myself being a mumbler at times.
Best of all, at certain points she danced and skipped across the stage barefoot, spinning around in her lovely dress, and having the time of her life while she sang. That was just wonderful to witness and brought a huge smile to my face.
Makes me want to go skipping around now myself!