London-based songwriter Nick Mulvey already had a wealth of musical knowledge before coming to the fore with a solo project in 2012, with years of formal education in Havana, Cuba studying music and art, as well as being an active member in Mercury Award nominees Portico Quartet. His first musical interactions were with piano and drums before he acquired a guitar in Southern Spain at the age of 18. He moved to Cuba a year later, and returned to the U.K. to study ethnomusicology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, submerging himself in different styles of music but specializing in West and Central African in particular. It was during this time that Mulvey met his Portico Quartet bandmates in 2005, where he played the Hang. After a successful stint with the outfit — which included a Mercury Prize nomination in 2008, 150 shows worldwide, and signing to Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records — Mulvey decided it was time to leave in 2011 and return to his first inspiration, the guitar.
With an abundance of genres at his fingertips, Mulvey set about creating a sound that was both striking and unique, intertwining influences of great musicians such as Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, and Tom Waits with a variety of African styles, including guitarist Kawele.
His standout debut album, First Mind, in 2015 was the introduction of an artist who shirked the conventional and side-stepped the expected. It was a record of opposing shades, all leftfield rhythms, and harnessing an exquisitely natural guitarist doing extraordinary things, painting unique colours across a very moreish collection of songs. It was quite peerless, and translated to the stage alongside fine collection of talented players that formed his band.
Nick’s return with the first fruits of his new album sessions has brought with it his own outlook on a world that can’t decide which direction it’s going, or quite what to do with itself. We’re all hastily trying to find our spot within these times, and Nick is no exception, but if clarity is part-resolved by a call to arms, perhaps it’s time to make that call. Unconditional, the first new music from Mulvey in over two years, is a multi-layered, groove-based tune that doesn’t stray too far from First Mind, but far enough to sound fresh, unique and exciting. It’s the work of a special British talent ready for the next phase, whatever that phase will be.
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