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" were subsequently released on digital streaming platforms throughout 2021.

Nicholas Sillitoe also teamed up with filmmaker Ola Røyseland to create short cinematic interpretations for five of the "Reveries" tracks, all filmed in atmospheric southern Norway locations.

Capturing the quiet, introspective mood of post-lockdown summer, the films include "When the Light Breaks" & "Just Say Know", with a young cast evoking corona-era stillness and uncertainty; "Sanctus" - with boy soprano Florian Almedal Sillitoe performing in an empty Kristiansand Cathedral; "Nemo," a black-and-white meditation on grief with Zyna Røyseland; and "The Deep Blue Air", an otherworldly narrative on our fragile nature.

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These films served as album promos and were also presented in the immersive "Reveries: Music For Daydreams" exhibition at Agder Kunstsenter (Sept 2021), featuring individual screens, headphones, props, and Nicholas’s surround ambient mix.

From 2022–2024, Nicholas & Sebastian toured southern Norwegian schools with live performances, projected films, enhanced sound design, and production elements, creating a complete sensory experience.

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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 “Reveries”.

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A new album will be ready for release in 2026. "Credo / Butterfly Blue" and "White Line Fever / Aloneness" mark the first glimpses of Nicholas & Sebastian’s new adventures, where piano meets presence and silence meets eternity.

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Photo: Ola Røyseland.