Tube V

XII Sound is Alice DeVille whose SITE is the London Underground.

“It’s difficult to know when my phobia of the tube began. But at some point, something changed, and I began to experience an increasing dread of the tube. Something about the very shape of it – the enclosure, the beneath the ground feeling, the crush of people – and soon, getting stuck in tunnels even for a few minutes would cause me to break out in a sweat. Every journey became increasingly distressing, and I started to feel panic rising within me every time the doors closed.

Maybe to distract myself, I began to record my moments of fear and all that was happening in the tube at these times. Some of what you hear in Tube V is about this. Along with the fear, there is also a beautiful familiarity for me in the sounds of the London Underground. I grew up right next to Wimbledon Park station, and I remember falling asleep as a child to the squeak of brakes or the clunking, soothing rhythms of the trains. The familiar announcements, the snippets of conversation, and the sounds of life are deeply nostalgic and soothing for me.

I have noticed that the tube, with its long windpipe, is a singer like me. At times in Tube V, I sing a duet with it.

I wanted to mix natural sounds (birdsong, rain, waves, stones on the beach) into the industrial so that you are not always sure what is a natural sound and what is mechanical or human-made (is it a voice or is it a train?). Almost like mixing paints to form new colours, I mixed these sounds perhaps to find my way back to nature, and to ease that grief of urban disconnection.

After years in the classical music world as an opera singer and flautist, discovering Ableton, and especially the Sampler, has been literally lifechanging for me. For many years previously, there had been music running around in my head but no way to capture it.

Back when I first started composing music in my younger years, I had only an 8-track recorder with a CD burner. I tried to make new sounds on that using my voice or recording various things from around the house, but it was never the music I heard in my head.

I sample sounds with my Zoom H2n recorder that I previously used to record my singing lessons on. I carry it everywhere with me, especially on the London Underground. When I first discovered Ableton and the Simpler, I felt almost feverish with possibility. Even to this day, I am dazzled by how it offers you the most incredible opportunity to make your own, totally unique instruments – even out of the subterranean sounds of the London Underground.”

XII Sound

Alice DeVille is a composer, opera singer, former Co-Artistic Director of Opera in Space, and a voice and communication coach.

Following her training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the ENO Works programme, Alice has performed extensively across Europe and at venues such as Glyndebourne, Wigmore Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and St John Smith’s Square.

As Co-Artistic Director of Arts Council Funded Opera in Space, Alice devised and performed in multiple sold-out productions, including The Semele Project (UK and Berlin tour), 5 Tales of Love and Madness, and 5 Tales of the Sea, fusing classical music with poetry, theatre, and storytelling to reshape traditional opera and recital formats.

Alice’s current work explores the intersection of natural and industrial soundscapes, creating sonic environments that reflect themes of healing and ecological connection in the face of the climate crisis. Her track Tube VI was selected for No Fixed Mix, a sound design program for female and non-binary composers at String and Tins.

Alice is also a voice teacher with over 20 years of teaching experience. She runs The Authentic Communicator, a voice and communication training company, where she helps individuals develop greater freedom in communication, including through expressive voice work.