Olivia Louvel



Olivia Louvel is a French-born British composer and artist whose work is presented in the form of sound recordings, sound art installations, video art, and live performances. She won an Ivor Novello Award in Sound Art at The Ivors Classical Awards 2023 for LOL, a sonic intervention delivered through the public address system of Middlesbrough's CCTV surveillance network, reflecting the current state of political affairs in Britain.

Previously, The Sculptor Speaks, a resounding of a 1961 tape of Barbara Hepworth's voice, was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in the Sound Art category at the Ivors Composer Awards 2020. She was interviewed by Stuart Maconie on his BBC Radio 6 programme Freak Zone about her "compelling sculpture-inspired work" on Barbara Hepworth.

She has presented her work at Towner Eastbourne, Middlesbrough Art Week, Phoenix Art Space, The Hepworth Wakefield, Chapter Arts Centre, Resonance FM /Extra, King's Place, De La Warr, Ikon Gallery, Anthony Burgess Foundation, Spirit of Gravity, NAWR BBC Hall Swansea, ONCA gallery, Brighton Digital Festival, IKLECTIK, CTM, Le Cube, Earsthetic Festival, Brighton Dome, Ososphere Festival.

Education
Louvel studied at the National Superior Conservatory of Dramatic Arts of Paris and had the opportunity to work with Klaus Michael Grüber and Michel Piccoli in a reworking of a Luigi Pirandello play. She holds a master's degree in Digital Music and Sound Art from DMSA, University of Brighton.

Compositional and audio-visual works
In 2003, with her first computer, she produced her debut album Luna Parc Hotel, released on Angelika Koehlermann in 2006. With guest appearances by Michael J.Sheehy and Sébastien Libolt.
 * Luna Parc Hotel (2006) composition

Inspired by silent-movie star Louise Brooks and her book Lulu in Hollywood. Released as a digipak CD on Optical Sound Records and Fine Arts, run by French artist Pierre Beloüin.
 * Lulu in Suspension (2008) composition, video art

Initially released as a digital version on Ototoi Music and Optical Sound. Doll Divider was originally inspired by A4 paintings which she made using pages from fashion magazines and repainting on top of the photos of the models. Collectively these paintings are called "Processed Dolls". Following her Qwartz Album Award in 2011, she created her label Cat Werk Imprint. "Doll Divider" was re-released as a limited-edition vinyl, enhanced and remastered version.
 * Doll Divider (2010–11) composition, video art

A soundtrack based on haiku by poet Bashō, released on Cat Werk Imprint. The limited edition CD is adorned with a hand-drawn "Magic Fish Dog", a character invented by Louvel. Performed in 2007 in the electronic kiosk conceived by Cocktail Designers/architect Olivier Vadrot at Festival en boîte, Bibliothèque de la Part-Dieu, Lyon, France (F). Screened at Festival Electron, Geneva, in 2008.
 * ō, music for haiku (2007–12) composition, video art, artwork

A suite of songs complemented by a series of experimental short films shot in West Sussex, reinventing herself as a bird-woman. "Bats" was remixed by Simon Fisher Turner.
 * Beauty Sleep (2014) composition, video art

An exclusive mix for EB Radio Electronic Beats, featuring her remix of Antye Greie's Poemproducer.
 * Mixtape (2014)

Louvel contributed a "compelling audio-visual" Afraid Of Women to the female:pressure campaign—curated by Antye Greie-Ripatti to raise awareness for the special de facto autonomous zone in northern Syria, Rojava. Released and screened at CTM Festival, Berlin. Produced using sampled sounds and re-fragmented images sourced from the internet, an attempt to highlight the formidable solidarity and courage of these women fighting on the front line against IS.
 * Afraid of Women (2016) audiovisual

Louvel "packaged experimental electronic music, new media art, and 16th century conflict into multimedia art", exploring the reign of Mary Queen of Scots, through an interactive digital platform and an album release. "A multimedia suite by composer Oliva Louvel digs deep into the psychic warfare between the 16th century British Queens. (...) The refined melodies of Louvel's intimate vocals and Fiona Brice's lyrical violin stand in fragile opposition to a backdrop, based largely around processed tambour samples, of harsh percussive rolls and looming reverberations. It evokes not only the brutality of the battles that peppered the UK in the 16th century but the sense of surveillance and paranoia that both women must have experienced." Abi Bliss, The Wire, February 2017.
 * Data Regina (2017) composition, 3D videos, online platform

Commissioned by avant-garde ensemble Juice Vocal, a Louise Labé inspired composition, premiered at Kings Place, London.
 * Not A Creature of Paper (2019) composition

A suite of nine pieces based on Hepworth's extensive writings. "Armed with an algorithmic chisel and mallet, Louvel repurposes writings by the late English sculptor Barbara Hepworth (...) SculptOr is a highly conceptual and meta-referential piece, a sort of meditation on artistic practices." Antonio Poscic, The Quietus.
 * SculptOr (2020) composition

A resounding of a 1961 tape by Barbara Hepworth, premiered on Resonance Extra Resonance FM, and followed by an audio-visual iteration. "The sculptor's cut-glass Received Pronunciation might be off-putting for the modern ear, but waves of technological manipulation have eroded its edges, turning it into a dreamy meditation on the nature of creativity."Deborah Nash, The Wire. Exhibited at Towner Eastbourne in 2023.
 * The Sculptor Speaks (2020) radio broadcast, audiovisual

A multimedia suite comprising an album and a video art form based on Doggerland, the land that used to stretch between today’s coast of Britain and Europe. Around 8000 years ago, the river Thames was then connected to the Rhine. "doggerLANDscape is a taut, charged and insightful collection that poses significant questions, at least in my mind, about political identity, ideological and material borders, and the ways in which our geological environments shape our lives and thinking." Johny Lamb, The Quietus.
 * doggerLANDscape (2023) composition, video art

Installations
A generative sound mural of nine speaker drivers and data projection, exploring an explicit sociopolitical agenda: the violent misogyny of incel communities. Installed at the Sound Diffusion Lab, DMSA, University of Brighton. Seected for the Longlist at the Aesthetica Art Prize 2021, and is featured in the Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology: Future Now.
 * The Whole Inside (2019)

Presented in 2021 at the Hepworth Wakefield museum as an audio-visual installation alongside the 10th anniversary exhibition 'Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life'.
 * The Sculptor Speaks (2020)

A generative sound-relief based on the ancient land which once linked Britain to the continent. The cartographic sound art installation for voice and data projection throws a net over the North Sea, revealing the rivers which used to connect us to the continent – when the Thames flowed into the Rhine. Premiered at Phoenix Art Space for the Sound Art Brighton festival. Installed at Middlesbrough Art Week 2023.
 * Doggerland Channels (2022, 2023)

A white noise and radio waves installation for a Willow Dome experience at Stanmer Organics for the first Sound Plotting festival.
 * Wave Dome (2022)

A sonic intervention delivered through the public address system of Middlesbrough's CCTV surveillance network, reflecting the current state of political affairs in Britain, produced with Kersten Glandien, artistic director of Sound Art Brighton for Middlesbrough Art Weekender. The Ivors Academy jury remarked: “LOL is a provocative, disruptive and impactful work, deftly constructed with humour”.
 * LOL (2022)

Live performances
In November 2018, she toured throughout the UK presenting a headline audio-visual set of Data Regina for Synth Remix, an event curated by Benjamin Tassie under Sound and Music's Composer-Curator scheme, also featuring Jo Thomas.

Louvel has opened for artists such as Semiconductors & Eartheater at De La Warr Pavilion (2019), Japanese avant-garde artist Phew, Planningtorock at the Earsthetic Festival Brighton Dome, and Recoil for various concerts on the European Selected tour (2010).

Initially trained in classical singing, she began to work as a singer for the flying trapeze circus Les Arts Sauts, performing at 12 metres in the air a Meredith Monk composition. She toured with them for three years, with notable performances at Festival de la Batie in Geneva, and Festival of Perth in 1995.

Collaborative practice
Under the moniker of The Digital Intervention, she worked with Paul Kendall (long term Mute Records collaborator) on the album Capture, which was released in 2003. With Paul Kendall as The Digital Intervention, they produced the piece "When the sea will rise II'" or Acoustic Cameras, a project which invites sound artists to annex the real-time flow of webcams located in various places around the world.

Along with Daria Baiocchi, Fiona Hallinan, La Cosa Preziosa, Vicky Langan, Úna Lee, Jenn Kirby, Claudia Molitor, Gráinne Mulvey and Rachel Ní Chuinn, Louvel contributed to the collaborative art project "Mean Time" with her composition "25 minutes and 21 seconds". The event was broadcast live on Nova, RTÉ Lyric FM from Richmond Barracks, Dublin.

Along with Duncan Cabral, Jaimie Moore, Dominic Rae, Louvel performed with the Mi.Mu gloves '54 bones', a gesturally based performance art for an audience of one at Onca Gallery for Brighton Digital Festival 2018.

LPs

 * Luna Parc Hotel. 03.2006, digipak CD with booklet. Angelika Koehlermann.
 * Lulu in Suspension. 01.2008, deluxe digipak CD & digital. Optical Sound.
 * Doll Divider. 02.2010, digital. Ototoi + Optical Sound.
 * Doll Divider. 06.2011, 12" vinyl & digital (enhanced & remastered version). Cat Werk Imprint.
 * ō, music for haiku. 12.2012, CD with hand drawn artwork & digital. Cat Werk Imprint.
 * Beauty Sleep. 09.2014, digipak CD (DVD size). Cat Werk Imprint.
 * Data Regina. 02.2017, digipak CD (DVD size). Cat Werk Imprint.
 * SculptOr. 02.2020, digipak CD (DVD size). Cat Werk Imprint.
 * doggerLANDscape. 11.2023, 10" vinyl, digital, art. Cat Werk Imprint.

EPs

 * Bats by Night, 02.2015, digital. Cat Werk Imprint.

Collaborations

 * Capture as The Digital Intervention (with Paul Kendall), 2003, CD. The Parallel Series + 0101 + Ici D'Ailleurs.

Compilations

 * 2013. Pussy Riot Freedom. female:pressure.Track featured ' Doll Divider'.
 * 2016. Music, Awareness & Solidarity w/ Rojava Revolution. female:pressure. Track featured 'Afraid of Women'.
 * 2017. Mind The Gap. Gonzo Circus. Track featured 'Good Queen Bess'.
 * 2022. Sound Art Brighton. ReR Megacorp. Track featured 'Doggerland Channels'.

Remix

 * 2016. Paris Multiplié  for Fiona Brice 'Postcards Reframed'. Bella Union.
 * 2021. Pathetique N.8 for CHAINES 'Beethoven Simulator'. Classical Remix.

Awards and grants

 * 2011. Qwartz Electronic Music Awards/ Prix Internationaux des Musiques Nouvelles. Qwartz Album Award for 'Doll Divider'.
 * 2011. SACD Laureate / Prix de la SACD. Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques.
 * 2013. Prix Ars Electronica Digital music & Sound Art, nominated for 'ō, music for haiku'.
 * 2014. Arts Council of England. Grant for the Arts for 'Beauty Sleep'.
 * 2016. Arts Council of England. Grant for the Arts for 'Data Regina'.
 * 2020. Ivor Novello Award, Ivors Composer Awards, nominated in Sound Art for 'The Sculptor Speaks'.
 * 2021. Aesthetica Art Prize. Longlisted for 'The Whole Inside'.
 * 2021. Arts Council of England. Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP), a 3-month research grant.
 * 2022. Henry Moore Foundation, travel and research grant.
 * 2023. Skaftfell Visual Art Centre, artist-in-residence.
 * 2023. Ivor Novello Award, LOL for Best Sound Art at The Ivors Classical Awards