Folk by the Oak Festival, organised by JSL events based in Allensmore, are delighted to have commissioned Spell Songs, a musical project that flourishes out of The Lost Words by author Robert Macfarlane and artist Jackie Morris - the poetry and art of this celebrated book are rich with rhythms and melodies, with language, painting and the living world combining into enchanting patterns of sound and image, a book that naturally invites a musical response.

Spell Songs brings together eight remarkable musicians, whose music already engages deeply with landscape and nature, to respond to the creatures, art and language of The Lost Words. The eight participating musicians spent time in Herefordshire earlier this month at a residency, coming together to write the new works, which will be recorded to create an album for release in later summer.

Spell Songs will allow these acclaimed and diverse musicians to weave together elements of British folk music, Senegalese folk traditions, experimental and classical music, and create an inspiring new body of work which will culminate in a short series of live performances at major venues around the UK, an appearance at the Folk by Oak Festival (Hatfield House, Hertfordshire on July 14) and other festival dates to be announced shortly.

Those already familiar with The Lost Words, will know it as a work full of wildness, beauty and power. It is a place where poems become spells or incantations, and where art makes magic. This bestselling and award-winning book has become, as the Guardian puts it, ‘a cultural phenomenon’, finding its way into the lives and dreams of hundreds of thousands of people around the world, inspiring hope, wonder and change.

The Lost Words began as a response to the removal of everyday nature words - among them "acorn", "bluebell", "kingfisher" and "wren" - from a widely used children’s dictionary, because those words were not being used enough by children to merit inclusion. But The Lost Words then grew to become a much broader protest at the loss of the natural world around us, as well as a celebration of the creatures and plants with which we share our lives, in all their characterful glory.

Robert explains: "We’ve got more than 50% of species in decline. And names, good names, well used can help us see and they help us care. We find it hard to love what we cannot give a name to. And what we do not love we will not save.”

Spell Songs will draw heavily on Jackie’s artwork and vision for inspiration. The book is as much a work of art as a work of literature. At select shows Jackie will paint live, her work fed to a screen so that the audience can see her painting unfold.

Last week Folk by the Oak welcomed the eight participating musicians to a residency in Herefordshire to write the new works, which will be recorded to create an album to be released in late summer.

Next month, on Saturday, February 9 there will be a live performance, featuring live painting by Jackie Morris, at Birmingham Town Hall.