Format: Deluxe digipak CD (dvd size) Catalogue: CW14. Available at Cat Werk Imprint
Following the tapestry of interwoven tales that was Data Regina (2017), SculptOr is Louvel’s most geometric work, a suite of nine pieces, using the words of the sculptor to weave and create an aural edifice. For a project inspired by Barbara Hepworth, it is appropriate that hers should be the opening voice on the album. In ‘Use Your Own Body’ Hepworth’s voice is re-sculpted in the first moments until handing over her text to the voice of Louvel for the remainder of the compositions. The physicality of sculpture and concrète sound is present throughout the album. As the infrastructure of the Pompidou centre was laid bare so Olivia’s scalpel exposes the shifting fabric and textures of the creative method.
‘Olivia Louvel SculptOr [Hepworth Resounds]’, Antonio Poscic, The Quietus, 10 March 2020. “There is something unequivocally human in Louvel’s work, centred around the voice and its manipulations” (...) “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”
‘Olivia Louvel, SculptOr [Hepworth Resounds]’, Raymond Cummings, The Wire, [print], March 2020, issue 433, p.63. “Louvel grants Hepworth’s reflections and insights fresh embodiment. In the process her own assumptions and practices as a contemporary artist in other media come under self-reflexive scrutiny.”
‘Olivia Louvel SculptOr [Hepworth Resounds]’, Roland Torres, SilenceAndSound, 2 March 2020
“Les titres nous entrainent dans un dédale d’accidents aux mots tournant en boucles, leitmotivs artistiques sur la condition de créer et d’être femme, mondes intimement liés entre eux, connectés par le désir de sentir la force stimulante de l’autre, de s’élever et de toucher les sens, taillant la musique à coups de glitches et d’éboulements, de cuts et de glissements. Sublime.”
‘Stuart chats to digital sound artist Olivia Louvel about a new compelling sculpture-inspired work’, Stuart Maconie, Freak Zone, BBC Radio 6, 02 February 2020. “a modern digital composer who has a fascinating new project on the sculptures and voice of Barbara Hepworth” (…) “Data Regina was a brilliant interwoven tales from British History”
‘Olivia Louvel ~ SculptOr’, Richard Allen, A closer Listen, 31 January 2020. “Louvel’s humility is apparent throughout her works, as she pays tribute to those who influenced her. Yet she’s also blazing her own trail, using modern tools: cutting with digital tools instead of a wire, hammering on a keyboard instead of on stone. SculptOr is an intricate work of sonic art, filled with nuance yet defying definition: a perfect tribute to its inspiration.”
’Olivia Louvel – SculptOr [Hepworth Resounds]’, Christopher Nosnibor, , Aural Aggravation, 26 January 2020. “There isn’t a moment that’s comfortable or easy here, and Louvel’s ‘resounding’ of Hepworth is relentlessly challenging as an auditory and sensory experience. But it’s also impressive in the way that it provokes the listener to awaken those senses and absorb a multi-faceted presentation of what it is to be an artist.“
‘Late Junction’, Verity Sharp, Late Junction, BBC Radio 3, [airplay], 17 January 2020. "That is the latest from Olivia Louvel who I always find so engaging. Data Regina was her last release a couple of years back, that was a multimedia piece exploring the lives of Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I and it seems that the lives of strong women are her muse…This latest album SculptOr uses the extensive writings of the British Sculptor Barbara Hepworth as the basis for an almost tactile series of pieces"
Format: Deluxe digipak CD (dvd size) Catalogue: CW14. Available at Cat Werk Imprint