Nicholas & Sebastian

Nicholas & Sebastian is an ongoing artistic collaboration between British composer Nicholas Sillitoe and Polish violinist/string arranger Sebastian Gruchot.

In almost all of Nicholas Sillitoe’s film soundtrack work, as well as many productions with artist Anne Marie Almedal, Sebastian Gruchot has often appeared as a key musician, contributing his delicate violin soundscapes to Nicholas’s distinctive score universe.

In the spring of 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Nicholas & Sebastian took creative refuge in the forested outskirts of Kristiansand. They began a new project aimed at blending Nicholas’s melancholy, post-classical piano style with Sebastian’s elegant, multi-layered strings. They quickly established a framework: music for daydreams.

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Inspired by the concept of imaginary film soundtracks and drawing upon minimalist improvisation, processed field recordings, and treated piano and strings, the duo began composing and recording a body of work that culminated in their debut album, “Reveries”. 

Unsure of where to place these emotive, tranquil pieces, Nicholas reached out to his publishers at Universal Music. They suggested licensing the material to their newly established music production label, Nordic ID.

“Reveries”, and its key singles, “When The Light Breaks”, “Just Say Know” and “Sanctus (feat. Florian Almedal Sillitoe)" were subsequently released on digital streaming platforms throughout 2021.

In the summer of 2021, Nicholas Sillitoe approached filmmaker Ola Røyseland to discuss creating visual scores for several “Reveries” pieces. As a film composer accustomed to scoring music to a completed script or a picture-locked edit, Nicholas was intrigued by the idea of reversing the traditional process, allowing the director to craft a visual narrative to pre-existing music.

With funding from "Sørnorsk filmsenter" (the regional film organisation in southern Norway), Ola and Nicholas scouted desolate locations around Kristiansand. Equipped with film cameras and a playlist of Nicholas & Sebastian tracks, they ventured into the woods to capture the stories inspired by the magic hour sunsets of suburban southern Norway. They eventually selected four Reveries pieces for Ola’s cinematic interpretation.

The films for “When the Light Breaks” and “Just Say Know” featured a talented cast of young actors, friends, and family, directed by Ola. These films captured the subdued "corona" summer zeitgeist—a time of hopelessness, uncertainty, quietude, and anxiety.

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“Sanctus,” a meditative piece Nicholas wrote for his boy soprano son Florian Almedal Sillitoe, was filmed in the empty main cathedral of Kristiansand, with Ola’s daughter, Enya Røyseland, portraying a solitary observer to Florian’s crystal-clear vocal performance.

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“Nemo” was filmed as a languid black-and-white study of loss and grief, with Zyna Røyseland delivering a poignant, poetic portrayal that highlighted the inherent melancholy of the music and the challenging times everyone was enduring. These films were released as promotional videos for the Nicholas & Sebastian album and exhibited in a multimedia installation at Agder Kunstsenter in September 2021.

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At the “Reveries: Music For Daydreams” exhibition, Ola Røyseland’s films were displayed on separate screens, each with headphones for listeners. Props and symbols from the film production were scattered around the gallery, enhancing the immersive experience. Nicholas also created a surround sound mix of atmospherics and foley sounds from the “Reveries” recordings. As Covid-19 restrictions lifted, the exhibition welcomed the public for a month, inviting them to fully experience the music for daydreams.

In 2022, Nicholas & Sebastian brought their “Reveries” production on a school tour in southern Norway, performing tracks from the album with several of Ola Røyseland’s films once again projected onto screens. The live performances, enhanced by sound design elements and props from the shoot, were presented in collaboration with live sound engineer Alf Vaksdal. The Reveries production will continue into 2023/24, with performances planned at additional schools and colleges in the region.

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Nicholas & Sebastian’s music is available for streaming on all digital formats, with several of the short films also accessible online. Many of their tracks have also been synchronized with various film and  TV soundtracks worldwide, introducing new narratives to the “Reveries”.

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Photo: Ola Røyseland.