Nigel Ayers (born 1957 in Tideswell, Derbyshire) is an English multimedia artist.

His sound art has included numerous audio releases and live performances through his group Nocturnal Emissions.

His sound art collaborations includes work with Bourbonese Qualk, C.C.C.C., Andrew Liles, Lustmord, Randy Grief, Robin Storey, Expose Your Eyes, Stewart Home, Z'EV, and Zoviet France.

Nigel 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).

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.

Partial discography (as Nocturnal Emissions):

Tissue of Lies LP (Emiss, 1981)

Tissue of Lies Revised CD (Dark Vinyl, 1990)

Fruiting Body LP(Sterile, 1981)

Drowning in a Sea of Bliss LP (Sterile, 1983; cassette reissued by Touch, 1985; CD reissued by Soleilmoon, 1993)

Viral Shedding LP (Illuminated, 1983)

Befehlsnotstand LP (Sterile, 1983)

Chaos (Live at the Ritzy) LP (Cause For Concern, 1983)

Dyskinesia (Sterile, 1983)

The Fight Goes On cassette (Staalplaat, 1984)

No Sacrifice 12" (Sterile, 1984)

Shake Those Chains Rattle Those Cages LP (Sterile, 1985)

Songs of Love and Revolution LP (Sterile, 1985; CD re-issue from Dark Vinyl, 1992)

The World is my Womb LP (Earthly Delights, 1987; Soleilmoon cassette, 1989; Soleilmoon CD, 1999)

Duty Experiment 1982–1984 LP (Earthly Delights, 1988; CD reissue Soleilmoon, 1995)

Spiritflesh LP (Earthly Delights, 1988; Soleilmoon cassette, 1989)

Stoneface LP (Parade Amoureuse, 1989; CD reissue from Staalplaat, 1994 with Spiritflesh)

Da Dum 7" (Parade Amoureuse, 1989)

Invocation of the Beast Gods CD (Staalplaat, 1989)

Beyond Logic, Beyond Belief LP (Earthly Delights, 1989)

Mouth of Babes LP (Earthly Delights, 1990; CD reissue from Soleilmoon, 1991)

Energy Exchange LP (Earthly Delights, 1991)

Cathedral CD (Musica Maxima Magnetica, 1991)

Blasphemous Rumours CD(Staalplaat, 1992)

The Seminal Works –12 tape box set (Earthly Delights, 1992)

Magnetized Light CD (Musica Maxima Magnetica, 1993)

The Quickening LP (Earthly Delights, 1993)

Glossalalia CD (Soleilmoon, 1994)

Holy of Holies – 4-hour DAT (Soleilmoon, 1994)

Binary Tribe CD (Staalplaat, 1994)

Imaginary Time LP(Soleilmoon, 1995)

Autonomia CD (Soleilmoon, 1996)

Friction And Dirt CD (Staalplaat, 1996)

Tharmuncrape An'goo CD (Soleilmoon, 1997)

Sunspot Activities CD (Soleilmoon, 1997)

Omphalos CD (Soleilmoon, 1998

Futurist Antiquarianism CD (Soleilmoon, 2000)

Collateral Salvage CD (Soleilmoon, 2003)

Nightscapes LP (Small Voices, 2006)