Olivia Louvel is a French-born British composer and artist whose work draws on voice, computer music and digital narrative. She operates at the intersection of creation and documentation, often taking for a point of departure, texts, poetry, archival and autobiographical documents. Her largest project to date, (2020), is a multipartite sound art project based on British sculptor Barbara Hepworth. 'The Sculptor Speaks' is a resounding of a 1961 recording of Barbara Hepworths voice, premiered on Resonance Extra, followed by an audio-visual iteration. The album release - 'SculptOr '- is a suite of nine pieces based on Hepworths extensive writings. 'The Sculptor Speaks' was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in the Sound Art category at the Ivors Composer Awards 2020.
Her work has been featured in The Wire, The Quietus, Electronic Beats, Fact Mag, Electronic Sound among others, and she was recently interviewed by Stuart Maconie for his BBC Radio 6 programme about her new compelling sculpture-inspired work on Barbara Hepworth.
Louvel has received extensive airplay on significant radio programs such as BBC Radio 3s Late Junction, BBC Radio 6s Freak Zone, Resonance (UK), RTE Lyric FMs Nova (Ireland), Radio Einss Elektro Beat (Germany), NRKs Harald Are Lund (Norway), RTVE Radio 3s Fluido Rosa, RTVE Radio 3s Atmosfera (Spain), RAI 3s Battiti (Italy), and France Musiques La Matinale.
She has presented her work at venues and festivals such as Chapter Arts (Cardiff, 2020), Kings Place (London, 2019), De La Warr (Bexhill, 2019), Ikon Gallery (Birmingham, 2018), Anthony Burgess Foundation (Manchester, 2018), Spirit of Gravity (Brighton, 2017), Nawr (BBC Hall, Swansea, 2017), Brighton Digital Festival (2018, 2017), Iklectik (London, 2019, 2016), CTM (Berlin, 2016), Dear Serge (Bexhill, 2015), Culture Night (Dublin, 2015), Earsthetic Festival (Brighton Dome, 2013), Tri XL (Antwerp, 2010), Le Cube (Issy-Les-Moulineaux, 2009), Ososphere Festival (Strasburg, 2009), Electron Festival (Geneva, 2008).
The result of her approach is presented in the form of sound recordings, live performances, short films and artworks.