JON HOPKINS..."a childhood music prodigy who was exposed to electronica and rave created his fascination for exploring contemporary sounds with classical technique"

Jon Hopkins is a London-based electronic composer, producer and remixer. He makes powerfully emotive, instrumental music that consistently crosses genres, ranging from solo acoustic piano to explosive, bass-heavy electro. A long-term collaborator of Brian Eno, his career has remained unpredictable, taking in collaborations with King Creosote and David Holmes; remixes for such varied artists as Wild Beasts, Nosaj Thing, James Yorkston and Four Tet. His hyper-energetic live show has been seen at some of the world's most iconic venues, including Sydney Opera House with Brian Eno, Madison Square Garden opening for Coldplay, and innumerable clubs, festivals and concert halls the world over. 

 A childhood musical prodigy, he studied classical piano at the Royal College of Music from the age of 12. Exposure to the melodic side of electronica and rave via such artists as Acen, Seefeel and Plaid proved eye-opening, and influenced his fascination in exploring more contemporary sounds. He was hired to play keyboards and samplers for Imogen Heap, then after a year of touring, began to write solo music. His first two albums on Just Music, 2001’s Opalescent and 2004’s Contact Note, gained him critical recognition.

Hopkins was commissioned by multi-award-winning Wayne McGregor – renowned for his fierce, physically-testing choreography and ground-breaking collaborations – to compose music for Entity, the production for McGregor's "Random Dance" group. 

On 5 May 2009, the song "Light Through the Veins" from Hopkins' album Insides was released for free on iTunes as part of their Discovery Downloads. This song is also featured as the introduction to the first track "Life In Technicolor" on Coldplay's 2008 album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends as well as the backing for "The Escapist" which is hidden at the end of the album. Hopkins worked as one of the co-producers for Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends contributing sounds and various keyboard instruments.

 In 2009 he helped Brian Eno score the Peter Jackson film, The Lovely Bones, along with Leo Abrahams. In 2010 Hopkins scored the soundtrack of the British sci-fi thriller film Monsters, his first solo feature electro-acoustic score, which is built around processed string performances by arranger Davide Rossi. Whilst, supporting slots with The XX, Royksopp and Four Tet helped the album gain further momentum, and it reached no.2 in the electronic charts on US iTunes.

He also co-wrote and co-performed Brian Eno's new album Small Craft on a Milk Sea, released on Warp Records in late 2010.

He is currently working on a new solo electronic album, to be released on Domino in 2011.

Personally I prefer tracks such as Reprise, Searchlight, The Wider Sun, Vessel, Light through the veins, and Autumn Hill...

IMOGEN HEAP..“the beautifully shuffling beat, descending piano chords and dark lyrical core further confirms her musical diversity.”

Imogen Heap (born December 9, 1977) is a British singer-songwriter / electronica artist from Essex, England.  

Classically trained her musical taste grew in tandem with her songwriting, Imogen's influences ranging from Nine Inch Nails to the burgeoning dance culture. She left two years later armed with her qualifications and hooked her up with the producer Nik Kershaw. 

Heap performed four songs between sets by The Who and Eric Clapton at the 1996 Prince’s Trust Concert in Hyde Park, London.  A Twenty minute set before an audience if 150,000 people, the concert gave her first taste of the limelight and served to crystallise her hypnotic and highly theatrical stage manner. Gigs in Camden would later see this persona expand with the aid of a walking stick, her trademark six inch leather horns furry hat and freaky hip hop dancing. Now courted by London's A&R fraternity, Imogen signed to Almo Sounds in April 1997.

Imogen started to record with producers David Kahne and Guy Sigsworth, whose cut 'n' paste production style and ability to cross-fertilise musical genres engendered a feeling of mutual respect between producers and artist. 

Her second single 'Shine', found Imogen in mellower mood. “Its beautifully shuffling beat, descending piano chords and dark lyrical core further confirmed Imogen's musical diversity.”

Her debut album 'I Megaphone':  Literate and honest in the style of Kate Bush and Patti Smith, the album takes the listener on a journey from despair to elation, stability to glorious insanity via it's potent brew of mashed up beats, guitars and classical flourishes. 'I Megaphone' ranges from the tender ballad 'sleep', a song that captures Heap at her most relaxed, to the baroque arpeggios of 'Rake It In' (complete with guillotine sound); from the piano song 'Come Here Boy' an ode to a father figure turned sexual figurehead, to the sparse, disjointed beats of 'Whatever'.

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 an online blog to update fans on progress, even seeking them to be her A&R team for the lyrics to “Daylight Robbery”. Heap set herself a deadline of one year to make the album (she booked the album mastering for December 2004), and re-mortgaged her flat to fund production costs, including the use of studio time and instruments (which she purchased as a birthday present to herself). Having been burned by previous challenges with record labels, Heap decided to form her own record label on which to release the new record. At the end of 2004, Heap premiered two album tracks online, enabling fans to pay for a digital download, entitled Just For Now (which was up for a limited time as a Christmas gift), and Goodnight and Go, which had been featured on the second season of hit US TV drama The O.C. 

In April 2005, The O.C. season two finale featured another track, the sparse vocodered-vocal track, Hide and Seek. 

As well as TV soundtracks (Frou Frou and Heap’s solo records have been featured in shows as varied as The O.C. to CSI, among others), Heap has also contributed solo tracks to movie soundtracks. Her cover of the song “Spooky” for the soundtrack to Just Like Heaven. Heap also wrote a special track entitled Can’t Take it In for the soundtrack to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

In addition to producing her own records, she has also collaborated with artists as diverse as Joshua Radin, Jeff Beck, Temposhark, LHB, Way Out West, Jon Bon Jovi, Mich Gerber, Sean Lennon, Urban Species, Blue October, Jon Hopkins and Acacia.

Imogen’s current album ‘Ellipse’ is currently out, featuring Canvas, Aha!, and Half Life. Imogen is also currently on tour to promote her new album.

JEM

Singer songwriter Jem, entered the music industry by storm via the exposure she gained from her tracks featuring as sync, soundtracks for TV shows including The O.C., Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, CSI Miami and Six Feet Under, whereby literally millions of listeners worldwide have heard her music. 

Jem fused elements of rock, new wave-styled electronica and trip-hop in her first album Finally Woken.  I would say she is a an alto vocalist who if was transported to a jazz bar would easily be in harmony with her slightly husky laid back vocal sound.

I would be speaking on behalf of her if I claimed she is clearly influenced by Imogen Heap, who I will shortly be posting a blog about. However as a listener, whether musically trained or not you can easily hear the similarities in their new wave electronica style intermixed with live orchestral string timbres.

She is an artist who really relishes on different timbres and captures the essence of contemporary classical music.  Tracks such as 24 have featured in the trailer Ultraviolet; the TV series Smallville and Without a Trace; and the film Center Stage: Turn It Up.  The use of the track in film Centre Stage: Turn it up was a fundamental musical accompaniment to the final dance scene of the film, whereby the piece begins with a monophonic melodic line played by the violins in close harmony, which acts as a driving ostinato figure throughout the piece.  Following, the hip hop beat kicks in, supporting the imagery of contemporary ballet into a jazz style of dance.  The diatonic harmony of the strings is interrupted by the forceful distorted sound of the guitar who acts as a continuous interjected drone throughout the chorus’ playing the first and third beats of each 4/4bar. Today, within the film industry the recent, new up and coming genre of dance themed films tend to choose a similar style of music combining a traditional romantic piece (Tchaikovsky) for a ballet sequence with modern day urban club music.  This is generally because the films would only be popular to a young audience if the contemporary times of dance were included, thus a fusion of dance styles and a fusion of music genres.   

Check out her website if you like what you hear...http://www.jem-music.net/

Write a comment or recommend a film you have recently seen where the music really captured the scene for you from any style of film.  

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