Nick Smith

Nick Smith played guitar before switching to Drums and Percussion. His primary focus for over 40 years has been free-improvisation, playing in London, Chelmsford and Colchester. Initially a member of the London Musicians Collective, where he was a founder member of the quartet Make Shift. Nick later met up with Mark Wastell, and commenced a fruitful period of collaboration with him.

Nick has also dipped into Jazz, Rock, Blues/Funk and Acoustic/Folk and sometimes sits in with a number of local Jazz-based ensembles. In April 2024 Nick played a solo percussion set for Konsztrukting Soundz as part of their initial programme, his first mostly improvised set in almost 15 years.

In recent years he has turned his attention to using electronics and effects to extend/enhance the sounds of metal percussion - gongs, cymbals etc. together with pure electronic sounds.

He has recently played live at the Resonance Underground Resistors events, together with EMOM evenings at both Chelmsford and Colchester.

Since 2024, Nick has performed a number of times with local musician and fellow improviser Jo Morrison. Their duo pairing has been formalised as the band STARNOSEDMOLE.