Olivia Louvel


Olivia Louvel is a 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 state of political affairs in Britain.
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, The Hepworth Wakefield, the Hepworth Research Network, Yorkshire Sound Women, Chapter Arts Centre, Resonance FM /Extra, King's Place, De La Warr Pavilion, Ikon Gallery, IKLECTIK, Brighton Dome, Brighton Digital Festival.
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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 & Sound Arts, University of Brighton.
In 2025, Louvel was awarded a PhD by the University of Brighton for her thesis titled ‘A hybrid encounter, a concrete voice: on the interplay of voice and sculpture,’ following her cross-disciplinary research in the Fine Art and Sound departments. She coined the term, ‘voice sculpture’.

Composition and audio-visual works

  • Luna Parc Hotel composition
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.
  • Lulu in Suspension composition, video art
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.
  • Doll Divider 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.
  • ō, music for haiku composition, video art, artwork
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. Screened at Festival Electron, Geneva, in 2008.
  • Beauty Sleep composition, video art
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.
  • Mixtape
An exclusive mix for EB Radio Electronic Beats, featuring her remix of Antye Greie's Poemproducer.
  • Afraid of Women audiovisual
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.
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.
  • Not A Creature of Paper composition
Commissioned by avant-garde ensemble Juice Vocal, a Louise Labé inspired composition, premiered at Kings Place, London.
  • SculptOr 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.
  • The Sculptor Speaks radio broadcast, audiovisual
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.
  • doggerLANDscape composition, video art
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.

Installations/Exhibitions

  • 2019 The Whole Inside. Sound Diffusion Laboratory, DMSA, University of Brighton. A generative sound mural of nine speaker drivers and data projection, exploring an explicit sociopolitical agenda: the violent misogyny of incel communities. Selected for the Longlist at the Aesthetica Art Prize 2021, and featured in the Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology: Future Now.
  • 2021 The Sculptor Speaks. The Hepworth Wakefield museum. Audio-visual installation for 'Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life'.
  • 2022 Doggerland Channels. Phoenix Art Space, Brighton. Sound Art Brighton Festival. Sound art installation on Doggerland and the rivers, which once linked Britain to the continent.
  • 2022 Wave Dome. Ecomusicology Plot, Stanmer Organics, Brighton, Sound Plotting Festival. A white noise and radio waves installation for a Willow Dome experience.
  • 2022 LOL. Midddlesbrough Art Week. A sonic intervention delivered through the public address system of Middlesbrough's CCTV surveillance network, reflecting the state of political affairs in Britain, produced with Kersten Glandien, artistic director of Sound Art Brighton. The Ivors Academy jury remarked: “LOL is a provocative, disruptive and impactful work, deftly constructed with humour”.
  • 2023 The Sculptor Speaks. Towner Eastbourne. For 'Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life'.
  • 2023 Doggerland Channels. Middlesbrough Art Week. Sound art installation.
  • 2025 doggerLANDscape. APT Gallery, London. Video art for group show 'Joining Doggerland'.

Live performances

In April 2007, she performed in the electronic kiosk conceived by Cocktail Designers/architect Olivier Vadrot at Festival en boîte, Bibliothèque de la Part-Dieu, Lyon, France.
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, Japanese avant-garde artist Phew, Planningtorock at the Earsthetic Festival Brighton Dome, and Recoil for various concerts on the European Selected tour.
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 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.
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, in collaboration with Duncan Cabral, Jaimie Moore and Dominic Rae.

Awards and grants

Discography

Albums

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. Cat Werk Imprint.ō, music for haiku. 12.2012, CD with hand drawn artwork & digital. Cat Werk Imprint.Beauty Sleep. 09.2014, digipak CD. Cat Werk Imprint.Data Regina. 02.2017, digipak CD. Cat Werk Imprint.SculptOr. 02.2020, digipak CD. 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, 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.