Casually Here - Possible Worlds

‘The perfect soundtrack to the optimism and freshness of spring’ Electronic Sound

‘Sweeping, transcendent electronica’ Future Music

‘Delightful, deeply immersive and irresistibly groovy... rich in imagination and skilled in execution’ Metro

‘Casually Here sets sails for folktronica’s undiscovered kingdoms’ Uncut Magazine

‘A uniquely picturesque experience’ Clash Magazine

‘Drenched in beauty’ The Everyday Magazine

Written, performed, produced & mixed by Nic Nell

Mastered by Guy Davie

Cover art ‘La Ville Creuse’ by Luc Schuitten

Design by Alexander Brown

Algebra Records | 2022

Viny & digital available here

London based Casually Here's (AKA Nic Nell) expansive and ambitious second album 'Possible Worlds' is out now via Algebra Records. The record's seven sprawling tracks explore bifurcating possible futures at this precarious point in history, all whilst maintaining an innate sense of optimism. The record explores these themes with acoustic and electronic instruments, analogue hardware, field recordings and sound design, using modern studio tools to push the sonic boundaries of both the dancefloor and home-listening. Written, performed, produced and mixed by Nell himself, 'Possible Worlds' was mastered and cut by Guy Davie (Jon Hopkins, Bibio, Nathan Fake etc). The artwork is provided by Belgian artist/architect Luc Schuiten, whose late 70s painting 'La Ville Creuse' depicts a vision of a future organic city.

Nic Nell is a London-based artist, composer, sound designer and producer/engineer, with a background in art and mathematics. He recently produced Orlando Weeks' (The Maccabees) acclaimed album 'A Quickening', and collaborated on an electronic art/dance project with Lawrence Hart via Hotflush. Also one half of Young Colossus and art-pop duo Rainer, it is safe to say the Algebra Records keeps a lot of plates spinning. He runs the label with a focus on supporting emerging artists, helping foster artistic community and context. Releasing music as Casually Here, 'Possible Worlds' follows 2015 debut 'Kept,' an immersive sound sculpture exploring liminal conscious states, and accompanied by several films. In comparison, 'Possible Worlds' is a more organic affair, both woody and earthy, it nestles between digitally imagined textures and pushes the perception of sound beyond the stereo field."I approach sound production as the making of forms & worlds, hearing sound as colour, texture & shape,"explains Nell, who is passionate about the long-term future of life and concerned about the existential risks to it: "For me, living in closer harmony with nature is key to our long term survival".

Centred around piano and an Oberheim OB-Xa synth, album opener 'Pale Blue Dot' references Voyager 2's famous photo of the Earth as a distant pinprick of light, taken through the rings of Saturn as it swept out of the solar system as a poignant reminder of the beauty and precariousness of life in our universe. 'Apex' is the spiritual and emotional centrepiece of the album, inspired by a transcendent dancefloor experience, evoking feelings of optimism and joy of not only belonging to greater humanity, but of being a part of all life on Earth. 'Crickets' was born from a field recording made in Liwonde, Malawi, its off-kilter rhythms juxtaposed by ambient calm. 'A 2067' is a dystopian journey into surveillance AI, and 'The Great Filter' – in reference to the Fermi Paradox - is a galactic cheer to the future. Conjuring images of iridescent pinks, meditative penultimate track 'Rhubarb Skies' ends in banks of trilling clarinets, evoking flocks of flamingos nesting in the ice lakes of the Bolivian Altiplano, and final track 'Fête' has humanity at its close, looking back at life on earth, the zipping electronic sounds representing our digital ancestors in drone form.

"Feelings of wonder, beauty and awe are so hard to hold on to. Making this album has been like an ember of hope that I've kept stoked. In turn, I hope 'Possible Worlds' helps listeners to look upwards and outwards, and to feel closer to those invaluable feelings of optimism for the future."

Casually Here - The Well Of Deep Time

Written, performed, produced, mixed & mastered by Nic Nell

Algebra Records | 2023

Originally composed to accompany a deep time meditation taking the listener back through the 4.8 billion year history of Earth, accompanying an episode of the ARIA award winning podcast 'The Long Time Academy', produced by Scenery Studios, featuring Brian Eno discussing the origins of ambient music.

It was subsequently part of 'PAN + TILT', a VR collaboration with virtual realist artists duo Gibson / Martelli, premiered at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival Expanded Exhibition.

Casually Here - Kept

Written, performed, produced & mixed by Nic Nell

Mastered by Nic Nell & Noel Summerville

Artwork by Nic Nell & Alexander Brown

Algebra Records 2015

Casually Here - Possible Worlds Remixed

Remixes by Heavenly Stem, Tony Jaguar and JQ feat. Jack Wylie of tracks from ‘Possible Worlds’

Mastered by Nic Nell

Available on Bandcamp

Algebra Records | 2022/2023

ELY - Are You Invested In The Economy Of Love? Remixed & Reworked

Album mastered by Nic Nell

‘Karpouzie Boogie (Liam Hutton Remix)’ stem mastered & additional synths by Nic Nell

Available on Bandcamp

Algebra Records | 2022

‘Are You Invested In The Economy Of Love?’ is the debut album from ELY released in 2021 on Algebra Records digitally and as sold out run of limited edition transparent lathe cut 12”s. Digital available on Bandcamp

Rainer - Water

Album written, performed & produced by Nic Nell & Rebekah Raa

Mixed by Nic Nell

Mastered by John Davis

Transparent vinyl & digital on Kissability / Algebra Records | 2015

Vinyl & digital available on Bandcamp

ELY - Are You Invested In The Economy Of Love?

‘Are You Invested In The Economy Of Love?’ is the debut album from ELY released in 2021 on Algebra Records digitally and as sold out run of limited edition transparent lathe cut 12”s. Digital available on Bandcamp

Algebra Records | 2021

The debut album Are You Invested In The Economy Of Love? from Lefkosia based musician Henry Walton’s project ELY. A collection of improvised instrumentals recorded over a period of 3 years in London and Lefkosia.

Whilst the recordings feature some of the UK’s top Jazz musicians, including AIM album of the year winner Sarathy Korwar, Collocuter’s Tamar Osborn and Chris Williams from Mercury nominated Led Bib, Are You Invested is most definitely not a jazz record.

Take an indie musician, with a love of spiritual jazz and fusion, and a collection of top musicians, and it's little surprise that this is the kind of album you might get. Full of original ideas which twist and turn, whether they be fully formed fuzz gated riffs or half dreamt melodies and structures, the album grooves, dances and weaves through a collection of instrumental soundscapes that represent various personal moments caught in flux.

As ELY’s Henry Walton says:

Because I’m not formally trained I basically can’t play the kind of music I want to. I was caught in this musical space between two places. What I could write and what I wanted to write.

At the same time I was figuratively and literally caught between two worlds. The world of London which I had left behind and a new beginning in Lefkosia. I was constantly battling with two versions of myself and trying to find peace and security in the middle. The process of creating this album and collaborating with much better musicians was a means of achieving that.

Album announcement track Levante is an ever building seven and a half minute ode to a Mediterranean wind & features local Cypriot artist & Honest Electronics collective member Panayotis. As he reminisces about a simple breakfast, beautifully deft interplay between the sax of Chris Williams and flute of Tamar Osborn begin to take over, swirling into a final flourish of brass and woodwind over a bed of loose percussion and bubbling electronics.

Lead track Dust is a 6 minute groove workout led by the two drummers Sarathy Korwar & Tom Rapanakis. Kowars forays into the few pockets of space sound like repeated attempts to escape the hypnotic back beat. Williams’ frenetic sax lines mimic the claustrophobia often felt when the Cypriot sky is heavy with the Dust from the Saharan desert and was on occasion poetically and dramatically linked to the heaving shelling of Homms during the Syrian Civil war.

Single Karpouzie Boogie, is all snaking eastern sax, dirty bass, synths wiggles and filtered arpeggios again playing out over the dueling drums of Korwar and Rapankis. You think you know when the track is heading until the two minute mark when everything falls away and a harmonised free-jazz solo from Williams takes centre stage over a stuttering half time beat.

The cover art, by artist Max Eru, plays with the idea of a fallen society with no structure or order except for the all conquering power of love. Like the musicians on the record he was given complete freedom to interpret the music and key themes in his style.

Henry is now based in Lefkosia and he collaborates with artists connected to the local labels Louvana Records and Honest Electronics as well as old musical friends in London.

Are You Invested In The Economy Of Love? is the 1st album from his group ELY. 

Engineered by Daniel Trachtenberg
Written, Arranged & Produced by ELY
Mixed by Kristian Craig Robinson
Mastered by Amir Goat
Artwork by Max Eru
Layout by Tushar Menon

All music written and arranged by Henry Walton except
Drums & percussion by Sarathy Korwar & Tom Rapanakis
Tenor sax by Chris Williams
Flute by Tamar Osborn
Synth & Rhodes on Are You Invested In The Economy of Love? by Marios Takoushis

Liam Hutton - Trials

EP | Mixed by Nic Nell

‘Walker’, ‘Trials’ and ‘Shade’ written & produced by Liam Hutton

‘Dumb’ written & produced by Liam Hutton & Nic Nell

Additional production on ‘Walker’ & ‘Trials’ by Nic Nell

Mastered by Kristofer Harris

Algebra Records | 2021

Emma-Kate Matthews - Flung Further

Album | Mastered by Nic Nell

All About The Light (Casually Here Remix) by Nic Nell

Algebra Records | 2021

Heavenly Stems - Florals

The debut EP from London based musician and producer Heavenly Stems released digitally and as one side of a limited edition lathe cut transparent green 12” with Florals’ sister EP Shell on side B.

Available on Bandcamp

Algebra Records | 2021

Heavenly Stems is the first solo project of electronic producer Ben Rimmer, founding member and producer of Oxford band Trophy Wife. Following a remix of Lake Turner (Algebra/Kompakt)’s ‘1990’, Florals and Shell mark the first solo releases from Heavenly Stems, working both independently and as the first two steps of a larger body of work, each unfurling a shimmering tapestry of off-kilter rhythms, haunting soundscapes and yearning strings. The music falls to its own rhythm, like a drifting signal from pirate radio beacons bobbing on the bay. Turbulent sub threatens beneath layers of bristling electronics, lifting piano, then violins, as the listener is drawn deeper into ever-shifting imagined landscapes.

Heavenly Stems is born of Ben’s love of sample culture and electronica, and a desire to produce in a way that brings all the feel of live performance into the recording process. Each track is constructed from live takes, sampled, manipulated, re-sampled and re-performed, resulting in a familiar-yet-estranged arrangement. The tactile nature of the composition maintains an arm’s length from the safety of the grid, each beat falling elsewhere but somehow just where it needs to be.

Florals and Shell owe much to pioneering inspirations such as J Dilla, Jon Hopkins and Burial; however, these tracks were also penned as expressions of admiration for trees. Taking a moment to break from the path, the record pulls to another quiet corner of existence, outside, away from the street although still in earshot; heading onward into the dense undergrowth and marvelling at the interconnectedness of it all.

Florals begins with a fleeting memory in Take (featuring Swedish composer Ljudvägg) before the boisterous title track Florals kicks in with misshapen beats and sun-warped synth. A feather-light piano refrain drifts in and out of focus, leading to a crescendo of skittish rhythm and countermelody. Summit conjures the clear air of the mountain top, swirling around in ebbs and eddies, faltering and falling back to give way to Link, akin to Florals in its energy and five-leggedness while introducing a more sample-driven note. Fall closes the EP in a heady mix of piano loops, strings and glitches, and features Italian composer Paulo Cattaneo.

Shell opens with Scintilla, an urgent, kinetic piece. A distant signal is picked up as Overstory gathers pace building ominously, suddenly igniting into a tension that evokes catching a train that is already in motion. Roiling, fizzing synths and drops bring the piece to a simmer before rolling away again on the wind. The Only Thing Happening, midway point of the record, arrives as if emanating from the stereo of a passing car, all driven sub and hazy vocals. The title track Shell rises out of the birdsong that follows, tracing itself into existence in a knot of winding tape and vocals. All at once it breaks like a cresting wave, shingle crashing together as the beat hits, pushed forward onto the beach and pulled back into the surf. Shell ends on Last Year, a bright composition of loops and cello which swells to a fever pitch of cacophony and dies away, hanging on a final note and farewell of songbirds.

The artwork for the EPs is based on interpretations of the landscapes imagined in the music and mirrors the simultaneously constructive and destructive methods used in the record’s composition.

The EPs were mastered by LA based producer Leo Shulman aka Somni.

Typography by João Pedro Fonseca.

Heavenly Stems - Shell

The debut EPs from London based musician and producer Heavenly Stems released digitally and two sides of a sold out limited edition lathe cut transparent green 12” with Shell;s sister EP Florals on side A.

Available on Bandcamp

Algebra Records | 2021

Heavenly Stems is the first solo project of electronic producer Ben Rimmer, founding member and producer of Oxford band Trophy Wife. Following a remix of Lake Turner (Algebra/Kompakt)’s ‘1990’, Florals and Shell mark the first solo releases from Heavenly Stems, working both independently and as the first two steps of a larger body of work, each unfurling a shimmering tapestry of off-kilter rhythms, haunting soundscapes and yearning strings. The music falls to its own rhythm, like a drifting signal from pirate radio beacons bobbing on the bay. Turbulent sub threatens beneath layers of bristling electronics, lifting piano, then violins, as the listener is drawn deeper into ever-shifting imagined landscapes.

Heavenly Stems is born of Ben’s love of sample culture and electronica, and a desire to produce in a way that brings all the feel of live performance into the recording process. Each track is constructed from live takes, sampled, manipulated, re-sampled and re-performed, resulting in a familiar-yet-estranged arrangement. The tactile nature of the composition maintains an arm’s length from the safety of the grid, each beat falling elsewhere but somehow just where it needs to be.

Florals and Shell owe much to pioneering inspirations such as J Dilla, Jon Hopkins and Burial; however, these tracks were also penned as expressions of admiration for trees. Taking a moment to break from the path, the record pulls to another quiet corner of existence, outside, away from the street although still in earshot; heading onward into the dense undergrowth and marvelling at the interconnectedness of it all.

Florals begins with a fleeting memory in Take (featuring Swedish composer Ljudvägg) before the boisterous title track Florals kicks in with misshapen beats and sun-warped synth. A feather-light piano refrain drifts in and out of focus, leading to a crescendo of skittish rhythm and countermelody. Summit conjures the clear air of the mountain top, swirling around in ebbs and eddies, faltering and falling back to give way to Link, akin to Florals in its energy and five-leggedness while introducing a more sample-driven note. Fall closes the EP in a heady mix of piano loops, strings and glitches, and features Italian composer Paulo Cattaneo.

Shell opens with Scintilla, an urgent, kinetic piece. A distant signal is picked up as Overstory gathers pace building ominously, suddenly igniting into a tension that evokes catching a train that is already in motion. Roiling, fizzing synths and drops bring the piece to a simmer before rolling away again on the wind. The Only Thing Happening, midway point of the record, arrives as if emanating from the stereo of a passing car, all driven sub and hazy vocals. The title track Shell rises out of the birdsong that follows, tracing itself into existence in a knot of winding tape and vocals. All at once it breaks like a cresting wave, shingle crashing together as the beat hits, pushed forward onto the beach and pulled back into the surf. Shell ends on Last Year, a bright composition of loops and cello which swells to a fever pitch of cacophony and dies away, hanging on a final note and farewell of songbirds.

The artwork for the EPs is based on interpretations of the landscapes imagined in the music and mirrors the simultaneously constructive and destructive methods used in the record’s composition.

The EPs were mastered by LA based producer Leo Shulman aka Somni.

Typography by João Pedro Fonseca.

Emma-Kate Matthews - Far Flung

A complex collage of dance floor adjacent electronica that transports the listener to a realm between physical and virtual realities.

London-based multidisciplinary artist, composer and architect Emma-Kate Matthews’ Far Flung EP. The release is available digitally and as a series of limited edition transparent lathe cut 12” with artwork made by Emma-Kate, that includes a series of music videos featuring a digitally simulated cloth and its physical counterpart, in the form of a handmade textile artwork included with each record.

Available on Bandcamp

Algebra Records | 2020

Resonating with our modern day occupation of a composite world between the virtual and physical realms, the Far Flung EP explores a series of conceptual and practical seams between the contrasting themes of synthesised versus acoustic instruments, abstract versus musical sound and digital versus analogue techniques for producing and manipulating sounds. Eerie drones are interwoven with complex upbeat rhythms, deep layered harmonies and erratic melodies to form an elastic sonic fabric which oscillates between moments of lightweight sonic ambiguity and highly-charged musical statements.

As a product of the Covid lockdown, Emma-Kate wrote and produced everything within the confines of her home studio in the Vauxhall area of South London. The growing desire to once again revisit far flung corners of the earth caused Emma-Kate to reexamine sounds that she has captured during previous trips, including recordings of a frenetic market in Sri Lanka, bats roosting on Greek Islands, traffic on the busy streets of Napoli and water lapping at the shores of Hong Kong island. The Far Flung EP also features drones produced by a series of bespoke tuning forks that Emma-Kate has designed and made with Laser sintered metals, providing a subtle tonal background for the sampled objects which periodically appear and disappear in the foreground.

Following her earlier sound-art releases the Far Flung EP is Emma-Kate’s most accessible release to date, drawing on her experience as a drummer and bassist to combine layers of familiar Latin and dance rhythms with more abstract percussive elements and found sound textures. Emma-Kate’s PhD research into reciprocities between architectural space and music is reflected in the EP through the use of spatial recording techniques, binaural panning and the simulation of reflected sound. This forms a virtual sense of depth which subtly expands, contracts and morphs around the listener, creating a spatial narrative from beginning to end.

Emma-Kate’s experimentation with the timbral qualities of acoustic instruments is influenced by the work of many contemporary classical composers such as George Ligeti, Henry Brant, Sofia Gubaidulina and Helmut Lachenmann. The Far Flung EP merges this aesthetic with synthesised sounds as influenced by artists such as Clark, Yasuaki Shumizu and Arca.

Emma-Kate’s artwork for the EP reflects the digital versus analog themes explored in the music, by juxtaposing a real and physically tangible cloth with images of a digitally simulated fabric. The video for Dreams Again merges footage of the digitally simulated cloth falling through space, with footage generated by artificial intelligence using a GAN (Generative Adversarial Network).

Emma-Kate Matthews last released on Algebra Records in 2018 with the experimental EP East Of The Active; a collaborative sound-art project with artist Rob Sheilds under the name DIAS. She is currently composing a spatially-aware orchestral piece for the London Symphony Orchestra as part of the Panufnik Project, which is due for performance in early 2022. Emma-Kate is presently completing her PhD in architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture where she is also currently a senior lecturer.


Written, produced and mixed by Emma-Kate Matthews

Sunplus - MORE RE-COLOUR

Album mastered by Nic Nell

‘UR’ remixed by Nic Nell

Algebra Records | 2020

Following the release of Rob Shields’ Sunplus project debut release ‘MORE COLOUR’, Rob has called on several artist friends to give their own creative takes on the MORE COLOUR material; piecing the components back together in their own unique ways.

MORE RE-RECOLOUR is a companion piece to MORE COLOUR, and a vibrant and complete body of work in its own right.

Yamachan is a London-based experimental duo, who most recently released the album Stone House on Canigou Records.

Tal Janes is a guitarist, composer and producer, involved in multiple projects including the bands Bahla and Waaju.

Ally Mobbs is a sound designer co-founder of Gohan Tapes based in Kyoto, and has worked has worked with software devs Native Instruments and Ableton.

Casually Here is a producer, artist and Algebra founder, with releases on Hotflush and the producer of Orlando Weeks' album 'A Quickening'.

Emma-Kate Matthews is a multi-disciplinary artist and architect, and collaborated with Rob Shields on the Algebra release DIAS: 'East Of The Active'.

Eye Measure is an experimental audiovisual artist who composes primarily using coding software Tidalcycles, and has released music on the London label Cherche Encore.

Unk (aka Hans Lo) is a London-based video artist and musician, and is the co-member of noise act More Surgery with Rob Shields.

Sunplus - MORE COLOUR

The debut album from electronic producer Rob Shields’ alias Sunplus released digitally and as a run of uniqure sold out lathe cut transparent 12”s on Algebra Records.

Art direction by Rob Shields & Nic Nell

Cover painting by Matt James Healy

Available on Bandcamp

Algebra Records | 2020

Sunplus is the alias of electronic producer Rob Shields, whose critically acclaimed first solo LP Green was released in 2017 on Yen. He followed this with the minimalist drone album Boketto and the abstract ambient house EP Splashy Splash, both released on his own imprint Art Therapy. 

Sunplus marks a new direction for Shields, who with More Colour has created a vibrant and exhilarating collection of psychedelic, blissful electronics. Existing in an otherworldly place, More Colour lies somewhere between the real and the fantastical, molecular and galactic, between inner and outer space.

More Colour retains elements of house and techno in its DNA, but is more at home at an ecstatic ritual than a dance floor. Four-on-the-floor rhythms of Shields’ earlier work have become the polyrhythmic patterns of African and Balinese music, alongside driving, motorik rock beats. The LP is influenced by Japanese experimental acts such as Expe and Seiichi Yamamoto, '70s German acts Neu! and Can, and the hypnotic productions of Shackleton. 

Sonically More Colour is brighter than Shields' solo work, though with a similar sense of bliss; his familiar lo-fi sound is set aside in favour of sharper, fuller production. The six pieces are his most complex arrangements to date. Live drumming and percussion is layered with multiple sources of swirling sound textures and harmonics; high-frequency sine waves, flutes, granular synthesis, FX-laden guitars, and various field recordings including whistling birds in Indonesia, the sonar squeakings of a bat colony, and heavy rain in Tokyo. 

The cover art takes inspiration from the abstract expressionist movement, portrayed by Matt James Healy.

Lake Turner - Primer Mover

The debut EP from London based musician and composer Lake Turner released digitally and as a sold out limited edition lathe cut transparent 12”.

Available on Bandcamp

Algebra Records | 2018

Following his debut solo release ‘Beacon Fields’ on Cologne’s Kompakt and a remix of Foals’ Albatross comes the upcoming 'Prime Mover' EP on Casually Here‘s Algebra label; a distinct vision of ambient-dub-techno using immersive swathes of disintegrating sounds. A blend of familiar and otherworldly fragments mesh together to form a sense of transcendental purpose, evoking a silhouetted drive on the edge of daybreak as the sun slowly rises to illuminate an imaginary world.

Having started his career as a mix engineer he has composed music for BBC natural history documentaries along with being a long-term collaborator of Foals’ Yannis Philippakis and working alongside the likes of electronic guru's Karl Hyde of Underworld & Ewan Pearson.

DIAS - East Of The Active

EP by Emma-Kate Matthews & Rob Shields

Mastered by Nic Nell

Digital and limited transparent lathe cut vinyl on Algebra Records | 2018

Tony Jaguar - Skyships

Album from Tony Jaguar released as a series of transparent lathe cut 12”s with unique mono print sleeves.

Artwork & design by Hugh Frost

Available on Bandcamp

Algebra Records | 2018

Casually Here - Large Hall, Low Ceiling

Written, produced, mixed & mastered by Nic Nell

Artwork by Tom Sewell

Design by Nic Nell

Available on Bandcamp

Algebra Records | 2017

azul-revolto - LIVID

EP by Lisbon based producer and artist azul-revolto featuring a collaboration with Casually Here

Digital and limited handstamped transparent vinyl available on Bandcamp

Algebra Records | 2017

Holographic Field - Window Gazer

Berlin based Holographic Field’s ambient/electronic album ‘Window Gazer’ released on limited edition transparent silver glitter cassette with artwork printed on metallic card stock on Algebra Records available to buy on Bandcamp.

Casually Here Remix of ‘Afterglow’ released to coincide with the cassette release.

Algebra Records | 2016