BBC Radio 3’s award-winning Delia Stevens and three time BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician of the Year nominee, Will Pound, deliver an unprecedented collaboration, following the creative evolution of the classical composers inspired by folk. Driven by a maverick curiosity, having stumbled upon a completely new world of sound, they combine the traditional instruments of Pound’s melodeon and harmonica with the dizzying array of Stevens’ percussion, and then let their imaginations run riot whilst paying homage to their respective musical roots.

Both at the forefront of their generation in their respective genres, both musicians are renowned for innovation and collaboration.

“percussion from Delia Stevens, whose thoughtful, insistent playing is crucial” The Guardian

Stevens’ work ranges from reimagining Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with percussion for Sky Arts, presenting her own BBC Radio 3 series “Music and Machines” – exploring the future of music and AI following Artist Residencies at the Sage Gateshead and the University of Leeds – to performing Avner Dorman’s prolific 360° percussion concerto at Prague’s Last Night of the Proms with the Beethoven Academy Orchestra followed by a tour of Germany with the Lausitzer Philharmonie. She is an Associate Artist of the Royal Northern College of Music where she won the concerto competition and Gold Medal prize and is a double winner of the Royal Over-Seas League Award.

“One of the world’s top harmonica players” Daily Telegraph

Pound has created touring projects questioning Brexit – headlining Shrewsbury Folk Festival – featuring a traditional tune from every EU state and Through the Seasons: an exploration of the history of Morris Dance with Martin Simpson and world-leading story-teller Debs Newbold. His collaborations include Eddy Jay, Jenn Butterworth, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Liz Carrol, Martin Simpson, Guy Chambers, Concerto Caledonia, Robbie Williams and The Hillsborough Charity Single. Appearances on BBC Breakfast, BBC2, Radio 2, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, MTV, Radio 1xtra to name a few.

In 2024 Stevens & Pound collaborate with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Northern College of Music and the youth-led global climate activism organisation Force for Nature to launch The Silent Planet to commemorate Holst’s 150th anniversary in a reimagination of his iconic Planet Suite with orchestra. Holst deliberately omitted Earth as “astrologically insignificant”. Stevens & Pound recognise this as an opportunity to write their own additional movement to the suite, platforming the voices which are being silenced as our planet faces a climate crisis. Their composition will be orchestrated by Ian Gardiner and conducted by Clark Rundell.

As well as prolifically touring their duo concerts across the UK including Petworth, Lichfield, St Magnus International Festival (Orkney), Dunster and Swaledale Festivals, they also look forward to touring Wales with Sinfonia Cymru in 2024 as concerto soloists performing their reimagination of Vaughan Williams’ iconic work The Lark Ascending, orchestrated by Ian Gardiner in a climate-inspired programme called Regenerate alongside the violinist Simmy Singh.

Stevens & Pound are EarthPercent artists, committed to splitting their royalties with climate change organisations.

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Me Lost Me delights in experimenting with songwriting and storytelling, creating a beguiling mix of soaring vocals and atmospheric electronics that playfully push the boundaries of genre. The Project of Newcastle-based artist Jayne Dent who takes influence from folk, art pop, noise, ambient and improvised music, her work has been described in The Guardian as “stripping folk back to its bones while letting its future echoes bleed out”. With her prolific writing and extensive touring schedule, her unique sound has won much support across the musical spectrum. Dent has notably performed live for BBC Radio 3’s After Dark Festival and as part of the 2022 BBC Proms alongside Spell Songs, Royal Northern Sinfonia and the Voices of the Rivers Edge Choir. She received the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composers and was 2020-2021 Artist in Residence at Sage Gateshead. With Me Lost Me’s third full-length album ‘RPG’, released in July 2023 on Upset the Rhythm, she has expanded her sound palette even further, diving deep into the question of what it means to make contemporary folk music. RPG presents the idea of songwriting as a role-playing game and invites the listener in to explore this strange new world of fantasy pastoral lands, sleepless unreality, and the joy of losing yourself in stories.

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Praise for RPG:

“Incomprehensible/irresistible” 4 star Folk Album of the month & no. 4 Folk Album of the year – MOJO Magazine

“An exciting, imaginative album exploring the links between traditional influences and electronics in fertile ways. Full-blooded folk harmonies and glitching sounds meet lyrics about old trees and festive days” – The Guardian

“It is a celebration of the essentially human playfulness of gaming, storytelling and songs” – The Quietus

“Folk culture loops forwards and backwards, scooping up technologies and stories along the way, like a tabletop game with no closure, an endless roll of the dice.” – The Wire

“An intoxicating mix of folk and electronics, like coming across a bank of Moogs in a forest clearing where wood nymphs and faeries are operating patch bays and tweaking oscillators.” – Joyzine