The River Welland soundtrack was recorded by Lucy Stevens and Ceri Levy and composed by Lucy Stevens. This ambient soundtrack captures the sounds of the river both above and below the water and will act as a base for Indian classical musicians Rishii Chowdhury (tabla) and Akash Parekar (sitar) to respond to at The Global Bird Fair in Rutland, 2022.

The River Welland

A poem entitled 'Tower bridge Gulls' written by Nirma De Silva and inspired by the water birds of London. Created for an exhibition of artwork by sound and visual artist Lucy Stevens who developed a collection of artwork as part of an artist residency at Bankside Hotel X Contemporary Collective in 2022.

Tower bridge Gulls

Botanical Birdsong was performed at the Botanic Garden in Leicester in collaboration with Attenborough Arts Centre on Saturday 19 August 2023.

A one-off musical performance inspired by the vocalisations of birds singing at dawn at the Botanic Garden.

Audiences can expect to hear the sounds of the robin, blue tit, great tit, blackcap, wood pigeon, blackbird and more in a soundtrack created by Leicester-based artist Lucy Stevens.

Lucy has worked with Rishii Chowdury and Akash Parekar to inspire a new composition of Indian classical music, which will showcase a wide repertoire of melodic phrases that mimic and complement the sounds of birds.

Botanical Birdsong

Representing Birdsong is a collaborative project inspired by birdsong, between sound and visual artist Lucy Stevens and tabla player Rishii Chowdhury.

The Swithland Wood Recordings has been created as a digital print, onto a 12 inch record sleeve and pressed vinyl, featuring illustrations of native birds, their songs and trees from Swithland Woods in Leicestershire. The soundtracks were captured using field recording techniques (with support from Geoff Sample) and feature birdsong and musical compositions inspired by birdsong.

Stevens and Chowdhury have come together to explore the magnificent sounds of bird vocalisations, including the variations in pitch, repetition and duration. The sounds of native birds have influenced the artists involved, by fusing field recordings, musical improvisation and drawing techniques.

The soundtracks feature classically trained musicians Rishii Chowdhury (tabla) and Roopa Panesar (sitar), responding to birdsong, with an additional track featuring a live recording of Rishii performing the tabla in the woods, responding to birdsong. The main inspiration for one of the rifts was the 'Coo Coo Cooo' of the Wood Pigeon and the loud call of the Green Woodpecker. 

A short film has been created to document the process of the project and reveal the various stages of creating the work (see the foyer area show reel).

I would like to thank the following individuals and organisations for their generous support towards this project: Rishii Chowdhury, Bill Newsinger, Geoff Sample, Roopa Panesar, Terry Forryan and Lyndall Phelps, Leicester Print Workshop, LCB Depot, Embrace Arts, Leicester City Council and Dub Studio and Senol printing.
For more information please visit: www.representingbirdsong.wordpress.com or stay in touch via Twitter @lucyjstevens #birdsongtabla. This project was supported by Arts Council England's National Lottery-funded Grants for the arts programme.

Birdsong and music composition by Rishii Chowdhury (tabla) and Roopa Panesar (sitar), 2014

Hear Th↓s Space have commissioned me to respond to the German Expressionist art collection at New Walk Museum by creating a new soundtrack. The group are a collection of composers and curators who put on site-sensitive events. They also work collaboratively with other arts practitioners and musicians to facilitate multi-speaker sound systems as part of external events. 

I’ve been involved in the project 'Gesamtkunstwerk' (Total work of art) since January and have attended several sessions to learn more about the German Expressionist collection, along with workshops open to the public to help gather recordings from inside the gallery and basement.

To make a soundtrack in response to a collection of artworks is no easy task, especially with such a diverse range of creative movements from the 1920s and one that rejects realism and expresses strong emotions of anxiety and fear. 
I’ve taken inspiration from the collection at the museum, as well as German Expressionist films and composers, particularly the music of composer Arnold Schoenberg, who avoided traditional forms of beauty and crossed the barrier of tonality in his music, using rapidly changing textures, dynamics and moods. It was these ideas of dissonance that I’ve experimented with in this new soundtrack ‘Unheard Voices’, which I’ve produced in collaboration with vocalist Brona Martin. 

The sounds were recorded on-site at the museum in a variety of rooms, spaces, galleries and the basement, including listening through air vents to the café below, comparing the different tones of each room, enhancing inaudible sounds, the sound of archival material and experimenting with giving everyday objects and surfaces a ‘voice’. 

Many sound recordings were gathered and those selected for the final soundtrack were grouped into chapters and then woven together, to form a narrative with a start, middle and end, using Brona’s voice as a storyteller to complete the composition. Her voice was used as an instrument to respond to, mimic and match the pitch and tone of sounds, which had been abstracted by stretching, reversing, repeating and overlapping to create a haunting quality with changing moods and high contrasting volumes and crescendos.

The recordings captured by artists and participants were shared as individual and collaborative pieces as part of a multi- loudspeaker concert on Friday 20 March, 7pm – 9pm at New Walk Museum in Leicester. 
As part of concert Brona Martin performed a vocal response to my soundtrack ‘Unheard Voices’.

Unheard Voices, 2015

A new commission from Attenborough Arts Centre to explore the songs of endangered birds, using Indian classical, traditional and folk music, field recordings, printmaking and video to visualise birdsong as part of a concert on Friday 22 April 2016. With support from Geoff Sample and The Wildlife Sound Recording Society. More info: https://lucystevens.co.uk/2016/03/23/the-red-species-list/

The Red Species List

Working in collaboration with G8 artists to respond to the theme of Leicester’s industry, both past and present. The new commissioned artworks will be made in response to collections of historic objects and museum artefacts as part of a group exhibition in the new galleries, at Attenborough Arts Centre from 9 June – 20 August 2017.

The exhibition examines the links between industry and parks to highlight ‘Leicester EXPO 72’, a major celebration of industry and science held at Abbey Park in 1972, to draw connections between the development of city parks and the industries that funded them.
With this in mind I have met with and interviewed retired industrialists, captured field recordings at Abbey Park and Billy Bates fair to reflect the history of Leicester’s urban green spaces and recorded sound from the factory at Cooke Optics Limited, a Leicester-based company who have been producing lenses for the film industry since 1894.

The new soundscape has been produced using a mixture of field recordings, interviews and oral history archives to produce a narrative that explores the rhythmic sounds created by industrial machinery, the patterns of voices recounting stories and the natural environment. The composition is layered with sound recordings gathered from factories, workshops, vintage industrial machinery, parks, wildlife and interviews with retired industrialists and manipulated to mimic the sounds of industry or stretched, repeated and reversed to produce new and unexpected audio samples.

The exhibition is supported by Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester and Leicestershire & Museum Services, Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund and Leicester City Council.

With thanks to Abbey Pumping Station, Leicestershire Industrial History Society, Men in Sheds at Age UK Leicestershire and Rutland, Cooke Optics Limited, Abbey Park and the East Midlands Oral History Archive, University of Leicester.

The Workforce Symphony, 2017

Dawn chorus captured at Cossington Meadows in Leicester on 24 June 2017 between 4am - 5am. Edited down to under 2 minutes. Features thrushes, warblers and tits (and unfortunately a road nearby!)

Dawn Chorus - Cossington Meadows, 2017

Sound and visual artist Lucy Stevens collaborates with local musician Peter Wyeth and experimental rock band Rattle for a unique, one-off performance exploring soundscapes that reflect the themes in the 'Memories of Industry’ exhibition at Attenborough Arts Centre on Thursday 27 July.

Performing Industry

A Song for A Wood Pigeon / Chiffchaff / Crow is a one-off performance, commissioned by Timber Festival based at Feanedock Wood in Leicestershire. Working in collaboration with Indian classical musicians Roopa Panesar (sitar) and Rishii Chowdhury (tabla) to produce three new sound tracks in response to field recordings gathered at dawn at the festival site. The three birds that were singing loudest and led the dawn chorus were the Wood Pigeon, Chiffchaff and Crow.

A Song For A: Wood Pigeon / Chiffchaff / Crow

Lucy Stevens is a multidisciplinary British contemporary artist whose work explores our relationship and understanding of nature conservation.
She draws inspiration from ornithology and colour theory. She is also an amateur birdwatcher. Her projects often include working in collaboration with experts in the natural world including scientists, museum curators, ornithologists, photographers and musicians.

Her work interprets birdsong, museum collections and conservation data into mixed media abstract portraits on paper and sound works developed from gathering field recordings. 

Her most recent work in collaboration with The British Trust for Ornithology and Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust explores the effects of climate change on migratory birds. The new collection of mixed media artwork is informed by scientific research to demonstrate declines in bird populations and changes in bird behaviour due to extreme weather conditions. She also works closely with Leicester Museum’s natural science avian collection to change the narrative around museums and conservation. 

Lucy lives and works in Leicester. She received an MA and BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Nottingham Trent University. Her work has been shown in exhibitions and art fairs across the East Midlands and London. She has also taken part in artist residencies in Scotland, Brussels, France, and Sweden.

Lucy Stevens

Popular tracks