Origin is a demo album by American rock band Evanescence. A compilation of home-recorded demos from 1996 to 1999, the CD was self-released and sold at local shows, and then packaged to showcase to record labels. It contains demos written and recorded by co-founders Amy Lee and Ben Moody for their earlier independent EPs in the 1990s, including "Whisper", "Imaginary", and "My Immortal", which appear on their debut album Fallen (2003). A total of 2,000 copies of the CD were made and sold by the website of a local company, Bigwig Enterprises, from November 4, 2000, to 2003.
Background
As Evanescence, Lee and Moody had composed and home-recorded demos, including two EPs, Evanescence (1998) and Sound Asleep (1999), which they sold at their live shows. Their early demos got them airplay on the local modern rock station in Little Rock, which helped them develop a local fanbase, allowing them to play a couple of bigger shows a year and hire other musicians to perform other instruments live. "The idea of a full band playing these songs was something that only came along later." Moody said that at the time Lee and he were focused on writing music over playing live shows, and they did not want to have a band join their writing process; "we just wanted it to be the two of us and so we'd play once or twice a year."