Emma-Kate Matthews - Far Flung
Algebra Records
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
mastering, remix
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 - UR (Casually Here Remix)
production, mixing, mastering
Sunplus - UR (Casually Here Remix) produced, mixed & mastered by Nic Nell
Album mastered by Nic Nell
Algebra Records | 2020
Sunplus - MORE COLOUR
Algebra Records
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.
Clock Opera - Carousel
writing, production
Written & performed by Guy Connelly, Che Albrighton & Nic Nell
Produced by Guy Connelly & Nic Nell
Mixed by Kristofer Harris
Mastered by Pieter De Wagter
Carousel video by Nic Nell and Guy Connelly
League Of Imaginary Nations | 2020
Luke Marzec - Regrets & Resolutions
mixing
Feel, Shiver & Be Mixed by Nic Nell
Bitterness mixed by Nic Nell & Greg Fleming
Self Released | 2019
Mercedes-Benz B-Class
production, mixing
Mercedes-Benz B-Class ‘Justify Nothing’ TV Commercial
Production, arrangement & mixing by Nic Nell
2019
Lake Turner - Primer Mover
Algebra Records
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
mastering
EP by Emma-Kate Matthews & Rob Shields
Mastered by Nic Nell
Digital and limited transparent lathe cut vinyl on Algebra Records | 2018
Art School Girlfriend - Moon
additional production
Produced by Polly Mackey
Additional Production by Nic Nell
Mixed by Matt Wiggins
Mastered by Matt Colton
Wolf Tone Records | 2018
Tony Jaguar - Skyships
Algebra Records
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
Sudoku Sweeper
composer, sound design
Sudoku Sweeper is a minimalist meditative mash up of Sudoku and Minesweeper for iOS and Android created by Edward Biden
Score and Sound Design by Nic Nell
2017
Village - Phantom (feat. Carmen Rosa)
writing, additional production
Topline & lyrics by Natalia Salter & Nic Nell
Additional Production by Nic Nell
Canvas / Universal Music Romania | 2017
Casually Here - Large Hall, Low Ceiling
writing, production, mixing, mastering
Written, produced, mixed & mastered by Nic Nell
Artwork by Tom Sewell
Design by Nic Nell
Available on Bandcamp
Algebra Records | 2017
Carmen Rosa - Wild One
writing, production, mixing
Produced by Nic Nell
Written by Natalia Salter & Nic Nell
‘Leave Me Lonely’ & ‘Give Me Love’ mixed by Nic Nell
‘Wild One’ mixed by Dan Grech
Hometown Records | 2017
azul-revolto - LIVID
writing, production, mixing
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
azul-revolto & Casually Here - Substance
writing, production, mixing
Collaboration with azul-revolto as part of his LIVID EP.
Digital and limited handstamped, smoked vinyl available on Bandcamp.
Algebra Records | 2017
Holographic Field - Afterglow (Casually Here Remix)
remix
Remix of Holographic Field’s ‘Afterglow’ taken from the album Window Gazer.
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.
Algebra Records | 2016
