To say it was an honour to have world-renowned pop artist, Imogen Heap in the studio for an interview on the morning of her first gig in Cape Town, would be an understatement. Imogen was a fantastic guest; intelligent, insightful, and quirky.

2oceansvibe Radio were the official media partners for Imogen’s Cape leg of her South African tour.

We headed out to her show later that evening at the Paul Cluver amphitheatre in Elgin. You can catch a short review of the Heap’s Friday night Cape Town set together with the interview after the jump. CLICK THROUGH FOR THE WHOLE INTERVIEW!

Imogen Heap 2oceansvibe Radio Interview by 2oceansvibe.com

Armed to the hilt with wrist mics, a transluscent electric grand piano, sampling software and 38 channels on a sound desk, heap was a whirl of ditzy british sensibility and musical genius.

Accompanying her on stage whenever the need arose was a husband and wife team, who were as skilled on their own instruments as Heap was on hers. My brain erased their names midway through the first song that they joined in on in a bid to make more comprehensions space available – the dopamine was kicking in hard. The male percussionist alternated between hammering a double-bass peddle and chiming on a xylophone with his right hand stretched across the percussion pit. And where the hell is the snare percussion coming from? Of course, his left hand.

The female cellist played with a classic acoustic cello, which had a beautiful sound contrasted against many of the electric instruments.

Also on stage was a Zimbabwean mbira (Heap has very, very strong fingers) and a keytar, which was rocked toward the end of the set with a pair of aviator sunglasses.

Heap builds her layered tracks from scratch as she goes, and her live performance is perfect; so exact and so purposely conveyed to the audience in front of her that returning to the album is a lesson in pathos. All of her albums are well-produced, but held against the light of Heap in person, who does so much to connect personally with an audience, a track played through headphones has a dull sheen.

Arguably the strongest part of the performance was her personality. More than a few fans, perhaps encouraged by the Forest Red at hand, shouted long and hard in the quieter moments: “We loooooove yooooooooou!”

Not to completely dissolve into a breathless puddle here, but the forest setting of tall blue gums definitely contributed to making what can sincerely be described as a magical performance. Not “magical” in the sense of faery circles and fire flies, but in the same way that alchemy is magical.

The result of Imogen heap, plus venue, plus audience, plus instruments, is alchemically magical.

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