The Gloves are On

Grammy winner Imogen Heap has a new musical instrument sound-manipulating gloves.

Written by Nupur Chaudhuri
November 20, 2011 01:04 AM IST

2 min read

British singer-composer-producer Imogen Heap is set to change the way live performances work. Headlining the Bacardi NH7 Weekender at The Dewarists Stage in Pune,the Grammy award-winner performed with her much-talked about high-tech gloves that control sound with hand gestures.

Developed by Thomas Mitchell,a senior lecturer in music systems at the University of West England,the mechanism is simple: the gloves are connected to a music-production system. If I can get these gloves to work,it can change the way live performances happen. The gloves free you from being in one area of the stage during a performance, says Heap,who has three solo albums to her credit. Her album Ellipse won a Grammy for the Best Engineered Album,Non-Classic,in 2010. She made heads turn when she walked on to the stage wearing a Twitter Dress. While a huge necklace broadcast live Twitter feeds,her purse had a screen showing videos that fans were sending her during the event.

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After India,her next stop is Shanghai. I am planning a project that will capture 24 hours in the lives of people in Shanghai. For instance,at 3 am,we will go to the printer where the local newspaper is printed; at 9 pm well follow the office-goer on his way home from work,with a choir, she says. After editing the recording,Heap intends to give these images a background score and release it as a 50-minute film around Christmas.

For her next album,Heap has taken inspiration from India. One of the tracks,Minds Without Fear,has her collaborating with music composers Vishal-Shekhar. The British singer also has her eyes set on Bollywood. I would love to come back to India in future and get my teeth into some movie �� some form of crazy,musical filming thing, says the artiste who will perform at Hard Rock Cafe in Delhi on November 22.