MERCURY Prize nominees Sam Lee and sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank are collaborating for the first time on a project to mark the centenary of the First World War

A Time And Place, an evening of musical meditations inspired by the folk songs, stories and poetry of the Great War, will be performed in Birmingham on Wednesday and the London Barbican on Thursday before concluding at the Howard Assembly Rooms, Leeds, on Friday, September 19 at 7.45pm.

Lee, the Unthanks and Rachel's husband Adrian McNally, the North Eastern group's pianist and producer, are part of an 11-strong line-up that will perform original repertoire from the time, alongside new material inspired by personal stories and arrangements to First World War poetry, against the backdrop of a video design by Matthew J Watkins.

The Great War's centenary affords an opportunity to look back at the creative landscape of the early 20th century and to rediscover its oral tradition. Alongside high-profile young artists, such as poets Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen and composer Ivor Gurney, many more were lost, and with the death of those in the folk tradition died the continuation of many songs, tales and tunes. A Time And Place seeks to unearth and revive these traditions.

As part of the project's development process, Sam Lee researched the wartime folk songs and personal stories from rural communities in the south west. He met people who inherited songs and stories from the First World War as part of a writing residency, including a 105-year-old woman who remembers Zeppelins crashing in her village.

This inspired new songs and arrangements, which Lee first performed as works in progress in each of the villages before developing further for the main show.

Becky and Rachel, meanwhile, are creating new music set to war poetry as well as new arrangements of songwriters from the North East at the time of the war. Adrian McNally is arranging all of this material for the 11 musicians, who include a string quartet and brass players.

Lee and the Unthanks will be working with video designer Matthew J Watkins who was part of Damon Albarn's Gorillaz project.

The art of the First World War was marked by modernism and Watkins draws on the inspiration behind this movement for his video.

Tickets for A Time And Place, Musical Meditations on the First World War cost £15 online at operanorth.co.uk

The project has been co-produced by sounduk, the Barbican and Opera North, with funding from Arts Council England and PRS For Music Foundation, as part of the Imperial War Museums First World War Centenary programme.