Guy Sigsworth

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Guy Sigsworth
Sigsworth in 2007
Background information
Birth name	Allan Arthur Guy Sigsworth
Born	May 1960 (age 64) Ilkley, England
Occupations	Record producer songwriter musician
Instruments	Keyboards harpsichord clavichord guitar
Labels	Mercury KX Decca Universal Classics
Member of	Frou Frou
Formerly of	Acacia
Website	guysigsworth.co.uk

Allan Arthur Guy Sigsworth (born May 1960) is an English record producer and songwriter. He has worked with many artists, including

Early life

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Allan Arthur Guy Sigsworth was born in May 1960

Sigsworth has worked with various engineers and programmers of distinction. During the late 1990s, he worked with Damian Taylor, who has since engineered, programmed, and performed live with Björk; in the early 2000s, he worked with Sean McGhee, who has since produced Temposhark; and most recently, he has worked extensively with Andy Page, who has previously worked with Sasha, BT, and Harry Gregson-Williams.

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After returning to the UK, Sigsworth moved to London and made a sudden change of direction. He became fascinated with the burgeoning

While working on sessions for Japanese drummer/producer Gota Yashiki, Sigsworth met virtuoso tabla player Talvin Singh. He subsequently played synthesizer and harpsichord for Singh's live shows, and later played and contributed remixes on Singh's debut album, OK.

In 1993, Sigsworth produced the benefit song "Survival Game" for the relief organization Menschen für Menschen in Ethiopia, founded by actor Karlheinz Böhm. The song was written by Mike Turtle and Dean Frederick. The track was later remixed by

While working with Talvin Singh, Sigsworth met

Sigsworth first met Imogen Heap in 1996 after a friend played him a demo of her song "Come Here Boy". He immediately fell in love with her distinctive voice. He was also amazed to hear that she shared his idiosyncratic love of melodies featuring wide, angular intervals—especially major 7ths and minor 9ths—which are not so common in pop. They wrote two songs together, "Getting Scared" and "Airplane", which Sigsworth produced for her debut album, I Megaphone. In return, Heap sang backing vocals on Sigsworth's band project with Alexander Nilere, Acacia.

In 1999, Sigsworth scored the movie

One night in Mumbai, India, where he was producing a song for British artist Amar, Sigsworth composed a tune on his Yamaha QY20 pocket sequencer. As soon as he arrived back in London, he took it to Imogen Heap, and asked her to write a top line for it. It became "Flicks", their first song for what would become the Frou Frou album Details. Originally, there was no plan for Sigsworth and Heap to form a band. It was simply a matter of Sigsworth wanting to hear various song ideas properly realized. As Heap said: "Every month or so, Guy would phone me up and say 'I've got a new song, would you come in and sing it?', and then before we knew it, we'd already started the album."

As a linking concept for the emerging set of songs, Sigsworth suggested two ideas for the lyrics:

1. They should feel like one half of a conversation rather than singer-on-a-soapbox declarations. Sigsworth's inspiration for this was the 1932 Jean Cocteau play La voix humaine (the entire text of the play consists of one side of a telephone conversation between a woman and her former lover. Her lover's words are never heard but are inferred from her words).
2. The word "love" should be used as often as possible.

Sigsworth wrote the lyrics to the songs "Breathe In", "Only Got One", and "The Dumbing Down of Love", and co-wrote the lyrics to "Let Go", "It's Good to Be in Love", and "Psychobabble" on Details. Heap wrote the remaining lyrics, apart from "Maddening Shroud", which was texted by Alexander Nilere.

After eleven songs had been completed, Heap and Sigsworth set about finding a name for their collaborative effort. Sigsworth, a fan of all things French, came up with "Frou Frou", which Heap loved. The name comes from Rimbaud's 1870 poem "Ma Bohème", and is a French onomatopoeic word originally meaning the swishing noise made by skirts on dancing women. The album title, "Details", was a reference to the way the songs were constructed in the studio, by layering momentary details of sounds and performances to create a web of sound.

The album was released in 2002 on

Heap and Sigsworth temporarily reformed Frou Frou to record a cover version of "Holding Out for a Hero", originally recorded by Bonnie Tyler, for the Shrek 2 soundtrack. The duo were approached by the music director of the film, who had been a fan of their album. The resulting track is played during the end credits of the film. Frou Frou also experienced a resurgence in popularity in 2004, when Scrubs star Zach Braff chose album track "Let Go" for his independent film Garden State. Other Frou Frou tracks have been included on television series, such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Roswell High.

• STET (2019)

• Cradle (1997)

• Details (2002)
• Off Cuts (EP, 2022)

• Mandalay – Empathy (1998)
• Baz – Psychedelic Love (2003)
• Kate Havnevik – Melankton (2006)
• Richard Walters – Pilot Lights EP (2007)
• Temposhark – The Invisible Line (2007)
• Alanis Morissette – Flavors of Entanglement (2008)
• Kate Havnevik – Me (2009)
• Diana Vickers – Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree (2010)
• Kate Havnevik – You (2011)
• Alanis Morissette – Havoc and Bright Lights (2012)
• Hildegard Von Bingen, Stevie Wishart & Sinfonye – Hildegard (2012)
• Alison Moyet – The Minutes (2013)
• Kate Havnevik – Residue (2014)
• Kate Havnevik – &i (2015)
• Alison Moyet – Other (2017)
• Jadu Heart – Melt Away (2019)
• Kate Havnevik – Lightship (2022)

• Bomb the Bass – "The Air You Breathe (Real Mellow Mix)" (1991)
• Lio – "L'Autre Joue (L'Autre Mix)" (1991)
• Lio – "L'Autre Joue (Heaven Mix)" (1991)
• Dali – "Daylight (One For My Baby Mix)" (1995)
• Badmarsh & Shri – "Air I Breathe (Guy Sigsworth Remix)" (1998)
• Talvin Singh – "Vikram the Vampire (Heavy Rotation Refixx)" (1999)
• Talvin Singh – "OK (Heavy Rotation Refixx)" (1999)
• Björk – "All is Full of Love (Guy Sigsworth Remix)" (1999)
• David Sylvian – "Godman (Guy Sigsworth Remix)" (1999)
• Aphrodite – "See Thru It (Frou Frou Edit)" (2002)
• Bebel Gilberto – "O Caminho (Guy Sigsworth Mix)" (2005)
• Mirah – "La Familia (Guy Sigsworth Remix)" (2006)
• Diana Vickers – "Jumping Into Rivers (Frou Frou Central Mix)" (2010)
• Alison Moyet – "Changeling (Guy Sigsworth Remix)" (2013)
• Alison Moyet – "Right as Rain (Guy Sigsworth Remix)" (2013)
• Love Exists
  (Guy Sigsworth Mix)" (2017)
• Gia Margaret – "Solid Heart (Guy Sigsworth Remix)" (2021)

• Official website
• Guy Sigsworth discography at Discogs