Matthew Liam Nicholson is a London-based songwriter, composer and producer.

Over the course of almost two decades, Nicholson has carved out a singular and much-lauded body of work as a musical director, guitarist, singer, lyricist and multi-instrumentalist, working both with his group, Function Ensemble, and as a composer.

As a composer, Nicholson has worked with a revolving cast of some 80 musicians and collaborators, including a full orchestra, to create a genre-defying mix of rock, folk, orchestral, minimal, electro-acoustic and ambient musics. With Function Ensemble, his group of ten years, Nicholson has put out a steady stream of expansive, critically acclaimed releases, each cohering around his almost limitless capacity for exploration and invention, his intuitive, sure grasp of an incredible variety of seemingly disparate musical styles.

In addition to the hundreds of songs and pieces he has penned in his 18-year career, Nicholson has scored and produced soundtracks for short films, art installations and documentaries, and has recently begun to have his music synchronised commercially. Nicholson’s ambitious, evocative and often ecstatic compositions evince a rare gift for moving, filmic sound that is, as yet, largely unexploited.

Nicholson is a prolific collaborator with his co-writers worldwide, and writes regularly with Dr. Patrick Liddell of Chicago’s Northwestern University. He enjoys access to a plethora of musicians across both the orchestral and experimental spectrum, as well as a number of collaborators deeply versed in the Carnatic and Hindustani Indian musical traditions.

After leaving his native Australia in 2002 for the USA, in 2006 Nicholson moved to London, where he now lives and works. A veteran of numerous tours with the Function Ensemble throughout the USA, Japan and Europe in recent years, Nicholson now prefers to focus on songwriting, composition and production from his London home, performing occasionally.

SHOWREEL 2008