ALBUM NOTES:

Pedalscope is an album of instrumental music issued in a one off print run of 500 copies on the Sonoluxe label. All but 4 tracks on the album were written for the film Velorama (directed by Daisy Asquith), a nostalgic look at cycling, that was being made in celebration of the 2014 Tour de France.

Work on the music began in January 2014 with Nelson working without the benefit of the finished film to compose to, and to a very tight deadline.  (The film premiered on 28 March 2014.)  With the music for the film delivered on time, Nelson then prepared additional material to complete the work on Pedalscope.  These appear as tracks 11-14.    

The soundtrack was released on 26 June 2014 and was sold out on 29 July 2014, but within a week was available as a digital download from Bandcamp.  In November the Velorama film was made available on iTunes to purchase digitally. 


CURRENT AVAILABILITY:

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

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IF YOU LIKED THIS ALBUM, YOU'LL PROBABLY ENJOY:
Picture Post, Map of Dreams, Simplex, Neptune's Galaxy, All That I Remember,

Albion Dream Vortex, The Years, Model Village


BILL'S THOUGHTS:

"Well, today is the day when I can officially reveal the exciting project I'm currently working on:

As part of the Tour de France festival, I'm collaborating with BAFTA award nominated documentary film maker Daisy Asquith on a film titled 'VELORAMA'.  The film is a celebration of UK bicycling throughout history using rare, historic footage sourced from the British Film Institute and Yorkshire Film Archives.  Daisy is editing and assembling this footage and I am composing and recording the soundtrack music.  The archive footage will cover various themes such as leisure cycling, cycling to work, wacky uses of bicycles, bicycle building, sport and so on.  Some of the footage will go right back to the early 1900's, and all points from then up to now.

The project first started last year when various creative teams were competing in a bid to secure funding for a film to be screened as part of the Tour de France event.  I was asked to be composer on one of these teams but, at that time, there was no guarantee that we would be awarded the job.  However, we did win the bid and the project is now underway."

"The music I have made so far is rich and complex.  I understand that there will be no spoken narrative so the music needs to be strong and illustrative.  I very much like what I've come up with so far and only hope that Daisy will too.  I've put in long hours and taken great care over the choice of sounds and tried to pack the music full of potential visual edit points."
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"Well, part of the brief from the film's director favoured something along Kraftwerk lines...but I have to admit that I wasn't really sure of that approach, mainly because Kraftwerk had already made an album inspired by the Tour de France and, as much as I enjoyed Kraftwerk back in the '70s and early '80s, I harbour no nostalgia for that style...unless quoted as a kind of kitsch homage.

However, I did my best to hint at that sort of thing whilst attempting to hold true to tonalities that were a little closer to my own sensibilities.

One of my approaches was to combine the techno thing with a hint of the nostalgic British orchestral sounds from the original British Film Institute archive footage which furnished the visual component of the film.

Inevitably, whatever one's intentions, and the problem of realising them in the real world, the end result is its own thing and emerges independent of the artist.  It's this unexpectedness which makes these projects truly interesting."
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"You may be surprised but it wasn't me who came up with the title!  It certainly seems like something I would have dreamt up, but it came from within the creative team.  Lots of different titles were bandied about.  I'd suggested calling it Pedalscope and 'When Britain Dreamed of Bicycles' and was trying to put the word 'Velocipede' into a title too.  (A Velocipede is a bicycle in olden day language.)"


FAN THOUGHTS:
 

BenTucker:

"It's a real breath of fresh air, and has a sense of wonder and new directions.  I bet the film makers felt like they'd struck the national lottery jackpot, getting music like that for their film."

"Bicycle Building":  "my favourite at the moment, due to the glorious sound and the multiple directions it takes.  Very evocative, quirky, "visually" colorful, Cinematic with capital "C"."


G. Vazquez:

"It sounds amazing!  Like a Kraftwerk's "Tour de France", but played by a human being, with a beating heart inside his chest!"


Paul Andrews:

"What a jolly soundscape it makes.  There's a certain whimsical optimism throughout."


felixt1:

"I think Pedalscope could well turn out to be one of the gems.

It's not Picture Post, it has a different vibe.  But it does share a sense of optimism and sunshine.

Is that Jan Hammer playing keys on "Bumpcycle"?  "Bumpcycle" is awesome!"

"Pedalscope definitely has a 'Get up and go' vibe.  It’' been a particular pleasure to have it playing, while I work.  The sun has even come out again..."


alec:

"Pleasure Bikes":  "It is such a pleasurable journey this track, that it's a film unto itself with shifting light, shifting vistas, shadows of clouds moving across landscapes."


Ed:

"It's quirky, surprising, inventive, highly hummable, just a touch nostalgic, and I'm sure it's going to be a fine soundtrack to the film, which I aim to watch very soon (thank heavens for YouTube!)."


mr manchester:

"Pedalsope shot into my personal BN top ten.  Reminded me a lot of the sounds heard on albums like Map of Dreams and Chance Encounters (maybe I'm delusional).  There are some truly exceptional tracks on this album.  I'm not familiar with the titles yet, but there were a few moments that I swear I could hear a Pathe-like voice-over.  A very evocative album."


damian dale:

"The music is wonderful though, and makes me want to pedal to town.  Now where did I leave my bicycle pump?"

"Thanks for another musical gem, Bill!!"