Imogen Heap adds South Africa to 2019 Mycelia World Tour

Image credit: Fiona Garden

Comprising concerts, talks and workshops, the 40-city tour will be used as a platform to officially launch Mycelia’s Creative Passport – realising a vision of the future which sees music makers connected through a verified and decentralised ecosystem, promoting artist-led, fair and sustainable operating practices.

Using emergent blockchain technology, the Creative Passport – which is unique to each music maker and empowers them to be "open for business" – contains personal information, existing IDs, acknowledgements, works and business partners. Featuring template "smart contracts", it aims to enable quick and easy direct payments to simplify and democratise collaboration from meaningful commercial partnerships to creativity.

Events in each city will feature some or all of these elements:

• Live concerts performed both solo by Imogen Heap and with Guy Sigsworth. Reuniting to play together for the first time since 2003 as electronic duo Frou Frou.
  
• Music maker workshops connecting the Mycelia tour with local music makers, technologists and industry influencers to profile the development of the Creative Passport.
  
• Family workshops which will include children building and coding their own MIni.MU Gloves.
  
• Talks at industry conferences where Heap will speak on the technologies which are positively shaping the future of the music ecosystem, building better business and audience relations with music makers.

Transforming the music industry

“For years now we’ve been complaining about the state of the music industry and how it has been held back by old ways of thinking, negatively impacting music makers - a major pain point being that we are the first to put in any of the work, and the last to see any financial reward or even payment. Through Mycelia and its Creative Passport, as music makers we now have no excuse but to put our best foot forward and become open for business, decentralising the ecosystem so that it will ultimately benefit everyone. I am excited to be going on the road to bring this to life, in addition to showcasing other new technologies which will add to transforming the music industry into a fair, flourishing and vibrant place,” shares Heap.

Says promoter Charl Van Heyningen of Charl Van Heyningen Enterprises, “Heap’s 2011 Ellipse World Tour was a huge success, and it feels right to bring this innovative artist back to South Africa at a time of change in the music and technology industries. She is at the forefront of music technology and there is no better way to start off a new year than on a positive note.”

Heap will be performing two shows in Cape Town at the Baxter Theatre, 15 and 16 March 2019 (tickets available via Webtickets), and two shows in Johannesburg at The Teatro at Montecasino, 19 and 20 March (tickets available via Computicket). Tickets range between R400–R890.