Nick Mulvey - FUV Live - 2014

As a founding member of Portico Quartet, the Mercury Prize-nominated experimental jazz group, Nick Mulvey played the hang, an unusual percussive instrument that resembles a space-age wok and emits a haunting, trembling tone. But despite the success of Portico Quartet, Mulvey was restless to return to guitar-based music, attracted to the lyrical confidence and technical prowess of songwriters like Paul Simon, John Martyn and Nick Drake.

In early 2011, Mulvey officially departed Portico Quartet to strike out on his own as a singer-songwriter. The gamble paid off: not only did Mulvey release his debut album, First Mind, this year, but the young songwriter's 12-song collection is one of twelve records shortlisted for the 2014 Mercury Prize. Mulvey will learn if he's won the prestigious music award on October 29, but he recently he visited the Bronx, guitar in hand, for an acoustic FUV Live session and conversation, discussing his travels through Cuba as a teenager, favorite poets and his collaboration with producer Dan Carey.

[recorded: 9/17/14]