Cult singer/songwriter IMOGEN HEAP has turned her childhood playroom into a recording studio after buying the house she lived in growing up.

The Brit has “taken on” the family’s “elliptical-shaped” home and admits the place’s odd shape and all her childhood memories inspired her new album Ellipse.

She tells WENN, “After 18 years I’m back in my old playroom making records.”

And there’s one track on the album, called The Fire, which will always be extra special to the singer - because it features a recording of a sacred family bonfire ceremony.

Heap explains, “Because the house is really old it has a tunnel that goes all the way around it and gratings that go over it, so, if you just walked onto the grating, you’d fall through. So my parents put a piece of wood there to prevent us from falling through when we were little.

“Several years on that same piece of wood was still there. I decided to make a new one so I put it on the fire but I didn’t want to just burn it in a bonfire, so I invited all my family around and I recorded the sound of the burning of this wood.

“It was a symbolic piece of wood for me because it still had our little feet marks on it, and memories of a happy family. For the first time ever we were all quiet and I said, ‘I just want to get the sounds down of this crackling fire and just know that you’re all on my record because you’re here with me.’

“So, for the song The Fire, it actually has the sound of this crackling piece of wood and all of us standing around it. I love having a part of my family on the record.”