Imogen Heap Talks “Cursed Child” Soundtrack and Possible Album
Innovator and music genius Imogen Heap provided music for the West End and Broadway’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which is still in the talks for an album release. In a recent interview with PSNEurope, Heap opened up about her amazing year in the music industry and revealed background information about Cursed Child.
The audio elements behind Cursed Child performances are made up of songs Heap composed for the play (largely the instrumental tracks) as well as snippets of songs from her previous albums (the complete songs are likely to be included on the album). Heap first became involved with the production of Cursed Child when Steven Hoggett asked her if he could try a few of her songs in trial phases of finding music for the play.
So eventually I went into a meeting with them and they were testing out some material and played some music of mine. They were trying to get the look of the Dementors and were using a piece of music I’d written and it really fitted [sic]. There was this clear magic between these two worlds. Then they asked if I would make the music for the play.
Joining a mammoth franchise such as Harry Potter can be extremely overwhelming. Heap said that she definitely felt the pressure.
We started getting together all the stems from the past 15 years, which is quite a big job. We set up everything in Ableton so I could work really quickly. It really tested me because I’d never worked that fast or under that much pressure. Sometimes we had nothing, so I’d have to make something from scratch and make it in five minutes. But it was so much fun.
Heap was not very familiar with the Harry Potter franchise – having seen a movie or two but never having read the books – and the producers of Cursed Child found her naïveté of the series refreshing for the play since they wanted to make it stylistically different from the films.
The good thing was that they didn’t want me to make a soundtrack like any of the films. This was a whole other beast. It’s not like the films, it’s not like the books – it’s a play. That was part of the reason they got me involved; I hadn’t done anything like it before and they wanted something truly original.
After months of hard work, one of the most magical moments for Heap was watching the audience’s reaction to the play. Watching the fully finished production was inspiring.
Obviously we’d been watching it on and off for months, but when the audience came in for the first time that was really exciting. You’re one step removed, you can’t change anything. I was really amazed at what we did in such a short space of time. It was really fascinating to see the process of theatre and how everyone is at the top of their game – the lighting guys were amazing, the projection guys were incredible, and I was in awe of the sound designer, Gareth Fry.
The sound effects and music behind Cursed Child make the theatrical experience of going to see the play far more magical than reading the script. If you’ve seen Cursed Child, tell us your favorite part of the music behind the play in the comments below! If you haven’t had the chance to see the play, we hope an album is confirmed so you can share in the musical aspect of the magic.
**UPDATE** The original PSNEurope article – our primary source for this article – mentioned the release of a Harry Potter and the Cursed Child album. Mention of this album has since been removed as it has yet to be confirmed. We have updated our article to reflect these changes and apologize for this error.
