ALBUM NOTES:

Neptune's Galaxy is an instrumental album issued on the Sonoluxe label in a single print run of 500 copies. The album was created as a companion album to The Alchemical Adventures of Sailor Bill. All five tracks are lengthy pieces that feature electric piano and guitar set to a background of suitably sourced sound effects. The album sold out in October 2006 - less than 4 months after being released.


CURRENT AVAILABILITY:

Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store.

IF YOU LIKED THIS ALBUM, YOU'LL PROBABLY ENJOY:
The Alchemical Adventures of Sailor Bill, Gleaming Without Lights, Quiet Bells, And We Fell Into A Dream,
Mazda Kaleidoscope, Dreamland to Starboard, Crimsworth, Rosewood One, Rosewood Two


BILL'S THOUGHTS:
 

"Neptune is a great album to listen to whilst picnicking on the cliff tops on a warm summer day, the lighthouse to your left, the harbour below, white sails of little yachts bobbing out at sea, seagulls soaring in a blue sky overhead, and your best girlie by your side. I'm hoping to release Neptune towards the end of June, whilst the summer still sings."
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"I am VERY satisfied with Neptune's Galaxy, but in a different way to the Sailor Bill album. Neptune's Galaxy is much more low key and ambient. It's not trying to be a bold new statement, but is an exploration of an area of music I've visited before, (Ie: Dreamland, Crimsworth, Rosewood), but it stretches and extends those moods via an oceanic soundscape.  Parts of it reference the kind of work I've done with my pal Harold Budd too, in fact some of it is directly inspired by the concert I took part in with Harold about a year ago in Brighton.

"You might say that Neptune's Galaxy is more abstract, contemplative, an 'art' piece, an impressionist painting, if you like, whilst Sailor Bill is cinematic, linear, figurative, biographical. They compliment each other by being connected to the coastal theme whilst being rather different in execution.

"I guess the most similar piece in terms of atmosphere on Sailor Bill would be the final track, "My Ship is Lost to Semaphore". This track serves as a bridge or portal to the alternative world of Neptune's Galaxy.
For now, enjoy Neptune's Galaxy whilst the sun shines and the waves lap the shore."
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"As the tracks on the actual album are very long, it's impossible to give more than a wee taste of the album's mood via a short sample. The tracks develop at a very relaxed pace, they don't rush through their changes, but they do unfold and develop quite dramatically as you listen to them. It is an easy album to absorb in many ways as it's all melodic, pastel coloured and quite gentle. But it IS an album to listen to properly if you're to enjoy the subtle way each track blossoms out from its initial premise. It takes its time and asks you to do the same. The more time you spend with it, the more it will reveal."
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"For me, I can't just keep turning out exactly the same style of music over and over...I'd get so bored with it, so I keep moving the atoms around, keep things in motion as much as possible. I like to challenge myself, as much as the listener.  But it's all from the same true source, my imagination, heart and soul. And it all means something and that 'something' will never be too difficult to grasp."
_____

"Didn't I tell you that I was about to release my hyper-thrash-metal album, 'Satan Wants Your Daughter's Flip-Flops And Will Leave Marks On Your Floor If They Don't Fit'? Every copy comes with a free one-million-watt home public address system so that your neighbours can join in the fun. But if you really want to make them scratch their heads, Neptune's Galaxy will provide a more controversial and subversive listening experience. Especially if you start bringing mermaids home to frolic in the bath with you whilst you play the album full blast on your wind-up gramophone."
_____

"Glad you like the merladies on the cover. Took me ages to catch them and days afterwards to mend my nets."

FAN THOUGHTS:

Johnny Jazz:

"Words fail me...it's beautiful."

"I love the fact that I've listened to NG half a dozen times since Saturday, each time it felt as though I were listening to a different album. There is so much going on, new motifs to discover, so many different ways to listen to it as well."


neill_burgess:

"First impressions are very, very positive indeed. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it is absolutely gorgeous. At times, ambient yes, but often so much more, with wonderful guitarwork (most reminiscent of Dreamland to Starboard) and skittering percussive beats and bleeps of a level I've not yet heard on any of Bill's albums. On top of that, it strikes me that this could be the best produced/mixed of any of Bill's albums, the whole sonic landscape clearly defined in a way that is itself a sheer pleasure."


Parsongs:

"Bill tells us about his previous life as a sailor, and then paints a musical picture about what he sees. It's a beautiful view from any coast."


Sue:

"After the opening ceremony and official listen-in, this relaxing and enchanting CD is certainly more delicious than strawberries and ice-cream, sweeter than honey, more magical than a childhood Christmas, has more aaahhhh!! than a Cadbury's eclair, and is smoother than the smoothest of silks. A real delight."


Twilightcapers:

"Don't know about anyone else, but I absolutely love this album. It's probably one of my most played CDs since it came out. There are moments of pure magic on there when I forget it's Bill Nelson manipulating the instruments and I just get lost in the ambience.
Along with Sailor Bill, my two favourite BN releases, and they are not guitar based works either! Hard to pin down exactly why I like them so much - they're just so different from everything else."


Pathdude:

"I think it is fantabulous. I wish it was twice as long. That style of Bill's is transcendent (in my mind)."


BenTucker:

"One of the things I find with Bill's albums from, say, after 2000 or so, is their inexhaustibility of appeal - you can go back to them again & again. Neptune's Galaxy seems to have a vast amount of "musical information", whilst at the same time being the ultimate 'chill-out' album (not a term I particularly like, but you know what I mean)."

"Particularly struck with the first track - you feel as if you're floating listening to it (while simultaneously being dazzled).  This is how "ambient music" should be: colourful and blissful. Absolutely essential listening - you really should buy it if you haven't already."


machman767:

"On the subject of the first track, Bill has made much of the cd being perfect summer listening material. The first time I played it, however, it brought back emotions of walking on a cliff top in late autumn, with a faint sea mist hanging around.  Even in the middle of a belting heatwave it still conjures up the image.
I've got to say there ain't much music around these days that manages to create ANY emotions!"


mvande2:

"One of the most beautiful pieces of music I've heard ever is the first 2 1/2 minutes of "She Signals From Across the Bay".  My eyes involuntarily close and I melt."


thunk:

"I tend to see this kind of music as 'expressionistic', while other ambient albums may rely more on the hypnotic effect of 'tones' & 'repetition' to seduce in an alternate way ('impressionistic?) - that's just 'one' take on this interesting & challenging form of music, and it can be SO much more rewarding than a collection of more structured songwriting from which an 'instant' appeal must somehow reach further..."

"Bill's music is 'most-rewarding' it seems in the long-term, and as with Neptune's Galaxy, its depth & beauty will emerge as we all give it more 'plays' and allow it a natural place in our Nelsonic heart..."


Angeltide:

"I hope this doesn't sound too pretentious (ie wanky) but if you have had a go at making a bit of music yourself, you begin to get some idea of the level of inspiration, hard work and determination that goes into creating a serious 'noodle' like this.
I've only listened a couple of times, as I like to savour these things properly, but my impression is that the album never stands still and is constantly introducing new sounds, ideas, mood shifts, references elsewhere and stylistic nods of the head to influences big and small. And all with apparently minimal effort and fuss."

"It's just absolutely beautiful. If you haven't ordered it do so. I said before that Sailor Bill had a curiously relaxing feel from the moment it starts and this one is even more so. Can't praise it highly enough."

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