Nick Powell, London musician & ex-member of Strangelove (EMI) has written scores for films, artworks & theatre throughout the world as well as releasing music under his own name and as OSKAR.
Nick recently worked with Sam Mendes scoring The Lehman Trilogy (West End, Broadway and World Tour), The Ferryman (West End & Broadway) and The Hills Of California (West End/ Broadway) as well as acting as music consultant on the Oscar-winning film 1917.
This September 2024 sees the Release of ATOMISED - Mini LP from EYECANDY - Nick’s brand new project, working with longtime musical partners Alex Lee (Suede, Goldfrapp, Florence and The Machine) and Jason Cooper, (drummer of The Cure) and a host of other regular collaborators.
Spawned from a diet of sci-fi movies and cold war night terrors, and shaped by the books of Ian Sinclair and Haruki Murakami and films of David Lynch, Atomised presents a unique lyrical take on Nick’s hometown of London. The city as a dreamscape through which people’s lives play out, haunted by the ghosts of their own pasts. The album delves into the deeply personal and subjective to find something universal, unsettling and yet,at times, euphoric.
Lonely figures gather at night on the banks of the Thames and imagine the city’s dead washed out to sea (Utopia).
A glitter ball illuminates an audience of ghosts at a gig in a lodge within some fairytale forest (Narrative).
Water rises through an Escher-like house, trapping its inhabitants within a construct of their own subconsciouses (Water Through The Floor).
The sad robots of 70’s sci-fi films present sanctuary to someone who has lost track of day and night (Silent Running).
A longterm relationship is itemised in a list of objects, formative songs and snapshots of situations that add up to the ingredients of a domestic apocalypse (Atomised).
The music carrying these images is always layered and arresting, often unsettling and angular and yet turbocharged with moments of sweeping melodic power and a motorik urban swagger. Soaring guitars are set against driving drums, while subtle bursts of violin blink like the signals from satellites. Vocals and backing vocals circle together punctuated by occasional hooks of choral power.
Additional collaborators on the album include Una Palliser. Una is a member of the Balenescu Quartet and has sung and played violin and viola on a number of projects with Nick including The Ferryman. Una has also recorded and toured with numerous artists including Elbow, Liam Gallagher, Amanda Palmer and Shakira as an instrumentalist and singer.
Charlotte Glasson plays saxophone on Narrative. Charlotte is a multi instrumentalist and leader of her own band, as well as currently touring with The Waeve playing saxophone and viola.
On violin on Silent Running and Utopia is Lucy Wilkins, another longtime collaborator of Nick’s. Lucy’s illustrious career has seen her playing with numerous artists as diverse as Roxy Music, Massive Attack and The Divine Comedy.
Atomised was produced and mixed by Alex Lee and Nick Powell with help from Paul Corkett, who has produced many artists including Strangelove, The Cure and Nick Cave.
In 2021 Nick released his first solo album of songs, Walls Fall Down: a thrilling & visceral response to the upheaval and chaos of turbulent times.
The album featured various long-time Powell collaborators including: Alex Lee, Sarah Willson (Belle and Sebastian), Chin Keeler, Lucy Wilkins, Una Palliser, Rob Spriggs, & Calina De La Mare (Heist).
Many of these collaborators returned on Music From The Black Box, a 17-track collection of instrumental music released in May 2022.
Nick scored Spanish director Juan Cavestany’s feature Un Efecto Óptico, which premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September 2020.
In 2017, Nick scored the opening event the Edinburgh International Festival.
In 2019 he co-scored Solar, a hugely ambitious live event in front of an audience of 100,000 people on the banks of the Danube in Linz, Austria.
In 2017 & 2022 Powell scored the celebrations for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao’s 20th and 25th birthdays in audiovisual spectaculars projected onto the surface of the iconic building itself, attended by over 400,000 people.
In 2016 Nick was commissioned by The City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra & Birmingham Repertory Theatre to create Cold Calling: The Arctic Project in which a 20-piece orchestra joined actors performing against a backdrop of Arctic landscapes.
Nick’s many awards include a New York Drama Desk & Spanish Premio Max as well as nominations for 2 Tony awards and an Olivier.