I am currently a researcher in the Music Technology Group (MTG) at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, developing computational tools to assist with musicological research. I dedicate most of my time to melodic analysis in Indian Art Music (IAM) but have previously worked with Arab-Andalusian Music and on AI for automated music generation.
I am also a practicing musician involved in two Barcelona-based groups: (1) Mukti, a duo of myself and Jyoti Narang, combining North Indian folk singing with European dance/guitar traditions and (2) Awa pa los Calvos, a 8-piece band combining rumba flamenca with funk/soul.
Prior to academia, I worked on machine learning teams at Channel 4 Television, Glovo, Typeform, and Crowdlinker, focussing on user-facing personalization and recommendation products.
Journal Publications
Genís Plaja-Roglans, Thomas Nuttall, Lara Pearson, Xavier Serra, & Marius Miron. "Repertoire-specific vocal pitch data generation for improved melodic analysis of Carnatic Music." Transaction of the Int. Society for Music Information Retrieval Conf (2023): paper
Thomas Nuttall, Miguel Garcia Casado, Andres Ferraro, Darrell Conklin, Rafael Caro Repetto. “A computational exploration of melodic patterns in Arab-Andalusian music.” Journal of Mathematics and Music (2021): 1-13. paper
Conference Papers
Lara Pearson, Thomas Nuttall and Wim Pouw. "Motif-Gesture Clustering in Karnatak Vocal Performance: A Multimodal Computational Music Analysis". Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, ICMPC 2023. paper | code
Thomas Nuttall, Genís Plaja, Lara Pearson, Xavier Serra. “In Search of Sañcaras: Tradition-Informed Repeated Melodic Pattern Recognition in Carnatic Music.” Proceedings of the 23rd International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference, ISMIR 2022. paper | code
Thomas Nuttall, Genís Plaja, Lara Pearson, Xavier Serra. “The Matrix profile for motif discovery in audio - an example application in Carnatic music.” Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Computer Music Multidisciplinary Research, CMMR 2021. paper | code
Thomas Nuttall, Behzad Haki, Sergi Jorda. “Transformer Neural Networks for Automated Rhythm Generation.” New Interfaces for Musical Expression Conference, NIME 2021. paper | code
Genís Plaja, Thomas Nuttall, Xavier Serra, Marius Mirion. “Continuing CompMusic: New approaches in the computational analysis of Carnatic Music.” Proceedings of the 26th International Symposium on Frontiers of Research in Speech and Music, FRSM 2021. paper
Thomas Nuttall, Miguel Garcia Casado, Rafael Caro Repetto, Xavier Serra. “Contributing to new musicological theories with computational methods: the case of centonization in arab-andalusian music.” Proceedings of the 20th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference, ISMIR 2019. paper | code
Talks and Workshops
Thomas Nuttall, Genís Plaja, Lara Pearson, Brindha Manickavasakan, "Computational Methods For Supporting Corpus-Based Research On Indian Art Music." Tutorial at the 23rd International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference, ISMIR 2022. link
Thomas Nuttall, Genís Plaja, et al, "CompMusic workshop 2022: Introduction to Computational Musicology, a Carnatic Music perspective." 5-day workshop alongside the 23rd International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference, ISMIR 2022. link
Thomas Nuttall. “Segmenting Channel 4 Viewers using LDA Topic Modelling.” PyData London, 2017. link
Performances
Awa pa los Calvos at Plaça Navas, Barcelona. Festa Major Popular del Poble Sec, 16th July 2022. link
Awa pa los Calvos at LA BASE, Ateneu Cooperatiu, Barcelona. Chorifest, 18th February 2023. link
Mukti at Sala Aranyó, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. Phonos Worldwide, 28th March 2023. link
Awa pa los Calvos at El Centre Cultural Albareda, Barcelona. Albareda Primavera, 26th May 2023. link
Awa pa los Calvos in Las Fiestas de Pacifico, Madrid. 24th June 2023. link
Awa pa los Calvos at Last Summer Dance Festival 2023. Schlasspark Erpeldange-Sur-Sûre, Luxembourg. 25th August 2023.
Mukti at La Mercè 2023, Barcelona. 23rd September 2023.
Mukti - Kahan Re Aaya Tu
Music - Mukti | Video - Ana Tejedor | Mixing/Mastering - Raimon Aranyó
Winner of First Prize in the category of Original Music Composition at the UPF Sant Jordi Awards 2023, Barcelona
Awa pa Los Calvos en Las Fiestas de Pacifico, Madrid. 2023. This design is directly inspired by Joan Miró's "Mano apresando un pájaro".
Awa pa Los Calvos, La Albareda. 2023. This design takes drawings from Jiro Bevis and Brian Blomerth's "A Bicycle Day". The design was originally to promote a non-profit community event and is no longer in use.
Phonos Worldwide Concert. 2023.