• Senior Lecturer (Music)

telephone: 01413304096
email: Nick.Fells@glasgow.ac.uk

Head of Subject (Music)

Office Hours: Wednesdays 2 - 3pm

Research Interests

Electroacoustic composition and performance, music technology and disability, non-Western musics.

Biography

Nick Fells is a composer, performer and sound artist. He works in acousmatic, soundscape, instrumental and vocal composition, installation, and music for visual media and dance.  Much of his music combines computer technology with live performance, extending and enhancing performance possibilities.  He teaches composition & electroacoustic music at the University of Glasgow.  He is a founder member of the composers' collective nerve8 and of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, and plays with a number of other improvising groups.  As a performer, he plays shakuhachi and computer-based instruments.

He was recipient of a Muenchen Kulturreferat Stipendium for an artist residency at Villa Waldberta, Germany, and performances have included: Lautwechsel, Munich; Late Junction, BBC Radio 3; Instal, Glasgow; ISSUE Project Room, New York; KHM Cologne; Muffathalle, Munich; Nicolaisalle, Potsdam.    

Personal website: http://www.nickfells.org/

Research Projects

• Chaotic Gestures: sculpting sound and animation in performance. 2004-5. Funding: AHRB Small Grant in the Creative and Performing Arts.
• InterAct. 2002 (ongoing). Funding: Performing Right Society Foundation for New Music, University of Glasgow Chancellor's Fund.
• Spatial interaction in composing live electroacoustic music. 2002-3. Funding: AHRB Small Grant in the Creative and Performing Arts (completed).

• 2004-5  AHRB Small Grant in the Creative and Performing Arts: Chaotic Gestures: sculpting sound and animation in performance
• 2002 (ongoing) Performing Right Society Foundation for New Music, University of Glasgow Chancellor's Fund: InterAct
• 2002-3 AHRB Small Grant in the Creative and Performing Arts: Spatial interaction in composing live electroacoustic music

Current students:

• Claire Healy: Sonic Arts portfolio
• Jodi Cave: Sonic Arts portfolio
• Charles Ross: Composition Portfolio
• Calum Collinson Scott:  'Musical applications of Physical Computing' (MMus)
• Iain Campbell:  'Towards a Critical Practice in Music Composition: What is the relationship between Music Composition Performance/ Reception Context and Creative Agency?' (PhD)
• Bethan Parkes: ‘Spatial Features in Acousmatic Music’ (PhD)

Administration

Recordings

• Munich and Glasgow - The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra with Evan Parker (FMRCD139-i0204, www.fmr-records.com)  
• volume 1 - nerve8 (n8cd01, www.digital-music-archives.com)

 Works

• in/if - sonic environment. Behaviour, The Arches, Glasgow 2009. Presented by SevenThings (www.seventhings.co.uk).
• rifts - fixed medium, 8-channel wavefield synthesis format for Sony Wave loudspeaker (2008). For Sony Creative Centre, Tokyo, in collaboration with Yuji Morimiya (Sony). With kind support of the GB Sasakawa Foundation.
• CoS - violin & electronics (2007). Barbara L√ºneburg & Marko Ciciliani, Dartington College of Arts & Goldsmith's College London, 2007; University of Glasgow, 2008. Co-development with Barbara L√ºneburg, joint STEIM Residency, Amsterdam.
• phonocollusion - laptop & spatial displacement (2006). Nick Fells, ISSUE Project Room, NYC 2006; part of collaborative internet performance Langen Nacht der Musik, with Oliver Augst, Nils Butmann, Wolfgang Dorninger, Klaus Schedl and Axel-Frank Singer, t-u-b-e klanggalerie, Munich 2006; nerve 8, Electroacoustic Music Studies Network Conference, DMU Leicester 2007; BBC Radio 3, Hear and Now, August 2007.
• Allocation Dynamics - quartet & real-time computer animation (2005). Nick Fells & Ensemble: Neil Davidson, Pete Dowling, Una MacGlone, Peter Nicholson, CCA, Glasgow 2005; Gunnar Geisse, Mathis Mayr, Christoph Reiserer, Julia Schoelzel, Lautwechsel, Gasteig, Munich 2005.
• Far - quartet & laptop (2005). Nick Fells & Ensemble: Davidson, Dowling, MacGlone, Nicholson, CCA, Glasgow 2005; Geisse, Mayr, Reiserer, Schoelzel, Lautwechsel, Gasteig, Munich 2005.
• Cracked Automatic - quartet & laptop (2005). Nick Fells & Ensemble: Davidson, Dowling, MacGlone, Nicholson, CCA, Glasgow 2005; Geisse, Mayr, Reiserer, Schoelzel, Lautwechsel, Gasteig, Munich 2005.
• Shooting ‚Äì - installation, with Ghanaian sculptor Kofi Setordji (2005). Villa Waldberta, Feldafing.
• Shooting Stars - installation, collaboration with composer Peter Dowling (2005). Villa Waldberta, Feldafing.
• Electric Spirit - double bass & laptop (2005). Una MacGlone & Nick Fells, CCA, Glasgow 2005.
• PET05b - online Flash animation (2005). Commissioned by Paragon, collaboration with retina burn.
• Wet Day - fixed medium (2004). Reeling & Writhing Theatre commission for Standing Wave - Delia Derbyshire in the '60s, Tron Theatre, Glasgow.
• 5 derbies - baritone, 3 clarinets (doubling bass), tenor trombone, piano, percussion, double bass (2004). Damian Thantry & Paragon, Musica Nova Festival, Glasgow 2004.
• talas - cor anglais & piano (2004). Musica Nova, Glasgow 2005.
• bli - sound & animation for computer-performer (2003). Peter Dowling & Nick Fells, CCA Glasgow; Nick Fells, KHM Cologne 2004.
• Still Life - string quartet & live electroacoustics (2003). Gillan Quartet, University of Glasgow, funded by the AHRB.
• Still Live - collaborative environment with instruments & live electroacoustics (2003). Christoph Reiserer, Peter Dowling & Nick Fells, Muffathalle, Munich 2003; Paragon, Instal, Glasgow 2003; Potsdam 2004.
• echoes of clinton's lovechild's screams - fixed medium (2002). Installation, Glasgow 2002.
• words on the streets are these - audience participation & computer (2001). Instal, Glasgow 2001; Tisch School for the Arts, NYC 2004.
• between two pines - shakuhachi & computer (2001). Nick Fells, Pickman Concert Hall, Cambridge, Mass. 2002; Late Junction, BBC Radio 3 2004.
• ripple - instruments & computer (2001). Paragon, Instal, Glasgow 2001.
• Maha - fixed medium (2001). Music Without Walls? Leicester 2001, Sound Practice, London 2006.
• riversongs - fixed medium (1999). Late Junction, BBC Radio 3 2004; Sound Practice, Dartington 2001.
• Or - bass flute, cello, percussion & computer (1998). Cornelius Cardew Ensemble, Bretton Hall 1998.
• Vug - Bb clarinet & computer (1998). Sharon Lyons, Electric Spring, Huddersfield 1998.
• gyre:eddy - fixed medium or dance + fixed medium (1997). NARC Dance Theatre, Resolution!, The Place Theatre, London 1998.
• tt - tenor trombone & tape (1995/97). Barrie Webb, Whitworth Gallery Manchester, 1997.
• After the travail - dancers, acoustic ensemble, tape, computer & video (1996). NARC Dance Theatre, Mediamix York 1996.
• Kendhang - solo dancer & computer (1994/96). Siri Rama, ICMC Hong Kong City Hall, 1996.
• roads to follow - solo oboe, piano, vibraphone, glockenspiel, marimba (1995)
• Elegy - central Javanese gamelan (1995)
• Emergence - SATB choir and tape (1995)
• The letting lie - 2 pianos, 3 cellos, 2 double basses, percussion (1994)
• Running - fixed medium (1994)
• Woodsighs - bass clarinet & tape (1993)