{{Short description|English multimedia artist (born 1957)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Nigel Ayers''' (born 1957 in Tideswell, Derbyshire) is an English multimedia artist.<ref name=" Cerqueira ">Fernando Cerqueira, '' Antibothis Occultural Anthology Vol.3 p.72'' (Thisco Portugal, 2010), {{ISBN|978-989-95447-9-6}}</ref> His sound art has included numerous audio releases and live performances through his group Nocturnal Emissions.<ref>{{cite web |author= Torreano, Bradley |title=Nocturnal Emissions Biography |url= http://www.allmusic.com/artist/nocturnal-emissions-mn0000447197/biography |publisher=AllMusic |accessdate=2015-09-22}}</ref><ref>Nicolas Ballet, Forward, ''ELECTRONIC RESISTANCE'', Amaya Publishing (Oakland, CA) hardcover, {{ISBN|9780578978208}}, pp. 5-7</ref>

His sound art collaborations includes work with Bourbonese Qualk, C.C.C.C., Andrew Liles, Lustmord, Randy Greif, Robin Storey, Expose Your Eyes, Stewart Home, Z'EV, and Zoviet France.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

In 1979, he co-founded the record label Sterile Records with Caroline K,<ref name=ransom>{{cite web |title=Caroline K'S Lost Cult Lp “Now Wait For Last Year” To Be Re-Issued |url=https://www.theransomnote.com/music/news/caroline-ks-lost-cult-lp-now-wait-for-last-year-to-be-re-issued/ |website=Ransom Note |access-date=13 October 2025}}</ref> releasing the first records by John Balance, Maurizio Bianchi and Lustmord, among many others.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Sterile Records Story: Cassettes |url=https://earthlydelights.co.uk/archive/sterile/cassettes.html |website=earthlydelights.co.uk |access-date=12 October 2025}}</ref> In 1987 he formed the Earthly Delights (record label).<ref name="Duguid">{{cite web |last1=Duguid |first1=Brian |title=Nocturnal Emissions Interview by Brian Duguid |url=http://media.hyperreal.org/zines/est/intervs/ne_int.html |website=ESTWeb |access-date=12 October 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220818234054/http://media.hyperreal.org/zines/est/intervs/ne_int.html |archive-date=2022-08-18}}</ref>

In the early 1990s, he performed live soundtracks for the Butoh performances of Poppo & the Go Go Boys.<ref name="Andy Gregory">{{cite book |last1=Gregory |first1=Andy |title=International Who's Who In Popular Music |date=2002 |publisher=Taylor & Francis Group |isbn=9781857431612 |page=20 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_International_Who_s_Who_in_Popular_M/gZIjT8PgJMEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Poppo+%26+the+Go+Go+Boys+nocturnal+emissions&pg=PA20&printsec=frontcover |access-date=12 October 2025}}</ref> His visual art has been exhibited in the Tate, ICA, and worn by the soccer legend Diego Maradona.<ref name="Quietus">{{cite web |last1=Phillips |first1=Amelia |title=No Commercial Value: Nigel Ayers Interviewed |url=https://thequietus.com/interviews/nigel-ayers-interview/ |website=thequietus.com |access-date=12 October 2025}}</ref><ref name="artcornwall.org" />

In 2022, ''Electronic Resistance'' - a large format anthology of Ayers's visual work was published by Amaya Productions.<ref name="Pattison">{{cite journal |last1=Pattison |first1=Louis |title=Electronic Resistance - Nigel Ayers |journal=The Wire |date=January 2022 |issue=455 |page=88}}</ref>

==Sound art== {{BLP unreferenced section|date=January 2023}} Ayers' sound art work is rooted in assemblage and collage. Years before digital sampling became commonplace, his recordings used thousands of edited "found" and specially recorded sound samples. His interest in the psychological effects of sound, and in particular the recombination of sound to affect perception of time and space is reflected in CD titles such as ''Practical Time Travel'' where sound functions as snapshots of memory forming new associations as it passes into a simulated dream world.

He is also interested in eroding the concept of individualised artistic personality using digital technologies to enable multiple authorship. This is exemplified in the remixable sound sample libraries he has released as a sound developer in the commercially released sample libraries for Sony's ACID Pro and Propellerhead's Reason (software).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8688:nigel-ayers-viral-emissions&catid=74:interviews&Itemid=91 |title=Nigel Ayers: Viral Emissions |website=Brainwashed.com |date=2011-03-26 |accessdate=2020-05-19 |archive-date=5 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305005611/http://www.brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8688:nigel-ayers-viral-emissions&catid=74:interviews&Itemid=91 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In his sound installations, such as Soul Zodiac (2006) and The Planetarium Must Be Built (2007) he has explored the possibilities of digital remixes in both time and space, using everyday equipment such as multiple CD boomboxes.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sound Installations |url=https://www.nigelayers.com/pages/soundinst.html |website=nigelayers.com |access-date=12 October 2025}}</ref><ref name="artcornwall.org">{{cite web |title=Nigel Ayers on electronic music, Iraq, psychogeography and Bodmin Moor |url=https://www.artcornwall.org/interview_Nigel_Ayers.htm |website=artcornwall.org |access-date=12 October 2025}}</ref>

== Sample libraries == *''Myths of Technology'' (Sony)<ref>{{cite journal |title=Sound Advice |journal=Electronic Musician |date=1 December 2003 |volume=19 |issue=13 |page=22}}</ref> *''Organic Chemistry'' (Zero G)<ref>{{cite web |title=The Big Reason |url=https://zero-g.co.uk/products/the-big-reason?srsltid=AfmBOooOJjXybp_ouX5_1XrtPCSleyjO848LKD3OlV8WGuKvCJ8-rxSk |website=Zero G Sample Libraries |access-date=13 October 2025}}</ref> *''Loop Noir – Paranormal Sound Design'' (Sony)<ref>{{cite web |title=Sony Sample CD: Loop Noir - Paranormal Sound Design (ACID) |url=https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/485696-REG/Sony_Creative_Software_SLLNP92_Sample_CD_Loop_Noir.html |website=bhphotovideo.com |access-date=13 October 2025}}</ref>

==Bibliography== *"Sound, Health, Radio and the News" in ''Radiotext(e)'' Neil Strauss (Ed), David Mandl (Ed) (Semiotext(e) 1993) p259 {{ISBN|0936756942}} *"Where's Wally? A personal account of a multiple-use-name entanglement" in ''Transgressions: A Journal of Urban Exploration'' #2/3 (Salamander Press, London, 1996) p89-94<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ayers |first1=Nigel |title=Where's Wally? A personal account of a multiple-use-name entanglement |journal=Transgressions: A Journal of Urban Exploration |date=1996 |volume=1 |issue=2/3 |pages=89–94 |url=https://libcom.org/article/transgressions-23-1996 |access-date=13 October 2025}}</ref> *"Ludd's Measure" in ''Mind Invaders: A Reader in Psychic Warfare, Cultural Sabotage And Semiotic Terrorism'' Stewart Home Ed. (Serpent's Tail London, 1997). {{ISBN|978-1852425609}} *''Bodmin Moor Zodiac'' (2007).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/cornwall/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9377000/9377844.stm |title=BBC - The Virgin's Nipple |publisher=BBC News |date=2011-01-27 |accessdate=2020-05-19}}</ref> *''The Control You Gain. The Power You Rule.'' (2009). *''NETWORK NEWS'' (Nocturnal Emissions, 2009). *''Lusitania'' (Earthly Delights, 2010). * S. Alexander Reed ''Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music'' (Oxford University Press USA, 2013). {{ISBN|0199832609}} {{ISBN|978-0199832606}} *''Electronic Resistance'' (Amaya Productions, 2021). {{ISBN|0578978202}} {{ISBN|978-0578978208}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.nigelayers.com Personal website] *[http://www.earthlydelights.co.uk Earthly Delights record label] *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPibXsoh6HU Video of The Planetarium Must be Built]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ayers, Nigel}} Category:21st-century English artists Category:Living people Category:1957 births Category:English experimental musicians Category:English industrial musicians Category:People from Tideswell Category:Soleilmoon artists