Casually Here - It Was As If
writing, production, mixing, mastering
Written, performed, produced, mixed & mastered by Nic Nell
Cover art by Nic Nell
Algebra Records | 31st July 2026
Digital / streaming available here
London-based artist, producer, and mix/mastering engineer Nic Nell returns as Casually Here with It Was As If, his third studio album, due for release July 31st via Algebra Records. The announcement is accompanied by lead single and album opener "Home" - an intricately crafted electronic track in two halves with a brightly boisterous opening giving way to a deeply grounded dancefloor meditation.
Following his acclaimed 2022 album Possible Worlds - which explored bifurcating possible futures at this precarious point in history, garnering features in DJ Mag and Future Music alongside praise from Electronic Sound and Uncut - It Was As If explores wonder closer to home, in the magic of the everyday.
Inspired by childhood memories of bedtime stories, the bookends of Disney films, and a letter from Van Gogh to his brother describing a quiet woodland clearing so heavy with potential that it felt as if a story might unfold at any moment, the title “It Was As If” evokes a feeling of latent magic. It champions imagination and attention, capturing the sense of a world waiting at the edges to be let in.
"Modern life is so busy, it’s easy to find ourselves so caught up in whatever’s shouting loudest for our attention, that we miss the small things,” explains Nell. “The dappled sunlight on a wall or the rippling of the wind through leaves are always just as beautiful as when we really see them in peak open moments, if we’re able to pause and really pay attention. I’ve used that feeling of openness to the moment as a divining rod in the making of this album."
Sonically, this translates into a high-resolution blend of lush, playful synths and tumbling rhythms, combined with intricate sound design, samples, and field recordings, splashed across the canvas, allowing for the organic happenstance of colouring slightly outside the lines, with acoustic instrumentation woven throughout. Infused with an innate optimism, Nell crafted the record to work at varying resolutions of attention - to be enjoyable passively when the brain is focused elsewhere, yet to be as richly engrossing as watching a film when given full attention. This is widescreen music that spans the dancefloor to the meditation mat.
Bringing his technical precision to his solo work, Nell wrote, produced, mixed, mastered, and performed the album in full at his Camberwell studio, tracking everything from its detailed synthwork to stacked layers of live clarinets. Classically trained with a background in mathematics and visual art, his highly detailed, cerebral approach is evident across a multidisciplinary career. As a songwriter, producer, and engineer, his catalogue has generated over 50 million streams. Alongside his own output as one half of art-pop duo Rainer, the collaborative project Young Colossus, and running his experimental label Algebra Records for over a decade, his credits include co-writing and producing Orlando Weeks' A Quickening, collaborative EPs with Lawrence Hart on Hotflush, and work with Art School Girlfriend, porij, and Luke Marzec. Beyond traditional records, his wider creative practice encompasses scoring for film, ongoing sound design for immersive fine art installations, and virtual reality collaborations with artist duo Gibson/Martelli that were featured in the BFI London Film Festival Expanded.
Tracklist:
Home
More
Family
Friendship
Stumble
Tell Me Story
Deep Calm
The Come Hither Of
Plexuses
Casually Here - Possible Worlds
writing, production, mixing
‘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."
Orlando Weeks - A Quickening
writing, production, mixing
‘Nothing short of stunning’ DIY Magazine
Album produced, mixed, engineered & co-written by Nic Nell
Play It Again Sam | 2020
Lawrence Hart & Casually Here - Many Worlds
writing, production, mixing
Album written, performed, produced & mixed by Nic Nell & Duncan Tootill
Mastered by Beau Thomas except ‘Ochre’ mastered by Christian Wright
Artwork by Alexander Brown
‘Wanderlust’ appears on the Hotflush 20 triple vinyl compilation marking the 20th anniversary of Hotflush Recordings availble here
Hotlfush Recordings | 2019
Luke Marzec - Something Good Out Of Nothing
mixing, mastering
Debut album 'Something Good Out Of Nothing’
Mixed & Mastered by Nic Nell
Swift Half Records | 2025
Essence Martins - Please Don’t Wake Me
mastering
Please Don’t Wake Me
Mastered by Nic Nell
2026
Paige Kennedy - Style Over Substance
mastering
EP Mastered by Nic Nell
Open Sandwich Records | 2026
Art School Girlfriend - Is It Dark Where You Are?
remix, mastering
Album mastered by Nic Nell
‘Good As I Wanted (Giulia Tess Remix)’ stem mastered by Nic Nell
‘Softer Side’ remixed by Nic Nell
Wolf Tone Records / Universal Music | 2022
Art School Girlfriend - I Would Die 4 U
mastering
Mastered by Nic Nell
Wolf Tone Records / Universal Music | 2021
Casually Here - The Well Of Deep Time
writing, production, mixing, mastering
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.
