My younger brother, the musician and composer Nic Potter, who has died of pneumonia aged 61, was best known as a member of the rock group Van der Graaf Generator. As a bass guitarist, he provided inventive harmonies and rhythms, created swiftly and instinctively, for the frontline musicians he worked with, such as Peter Hammill and Duncan Browne. A generous collaborator, he offered up his exquisite riffs with a quiet passion.
Nic was born in a former army hut in the grounds of the Beltane school, Wiltshire, where our father, Norman Potter, was teaching carpentry. He was a boy of great sensitivity. At the age of two, he saw a chicken being killed and said he would never eat meat in his life. He never did. His awareness of the suffering of others was always apparent.
He was a self-taught musician who played by ear. One of my enduring memories of Nic is the image of him in his bedroom playing his unamplified bass for hour upon hour, conjuring a world of music around him that was inaudible to anyone else.
His early years as a rock musician – at 16 playing with the Misunderstood, at 18 supporting Chuck Berry in concert at the Royal Albert Hall – were exhilarating, packed with adventure as he toured the world, the start of a lifelong love of travel. With Van der Graaf Generator he recorded two albums, The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other and H to He, Who Am the Only One (both released in 1970), and toured the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, the US and South America.
After joining the Tigers and touring the US, he worked as a session musician with the Beach Boys and Jeff Beck before concentrating on his own compositions. His label, Zomart, produced 11 albums, including The Blue Zone, New Europe and The Long Hello: Volume 2, Nic often collaborating with his great friend Guy Evans, the drummer with Van der Graaf Generator.
Nic painted beautiful miniatures, including limited-edition handpainted covers for his CDs.
Two years ago, Nic was diagnosed with Pick's disease but, despite his increasing disability, he blossomed and his gentle, ironic wit, affection for his friends and appreciation of his family and of every aspect of being alive made him a joy to be with. During the last year we visited two of his favourite islands with Charlotte, our younger sister, and my husband, Christopher. Nic loved camping in a small tent in howling wind on St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly and strolling by the quayside in Hydra, Greece.
He is survived by me and Charlotte, and his uncle Nicholas.