ALBUM NOTES:
 

Old Haunts is an album combining vocal and instrumental pieces issued on the Sonoluxe label in a limited edition of 1000 copies.

​

The album was recorded during June and July 2019 and represents the final album to be made using Nelson's Mackie based recording system that has been his trusted set-up since 2002.

​

Old Haunts continues the new exclusive arrangement of using Burning Shed as the manufacturers and online outlet for obtaining Bill Nelson's music on physical formats.

​

With 16 pieces recorded for the new album, and with known issues with the DAT machine at Fairview Studios as experienced with the Auditoria 3CD set last year, Nelson decided to transfer the tracks for Old Haunts to CDR from his DAT masters in advance of the album's mastering session. 

​

That mastering session for Old Haunts took place at Fairview with John Spence at the helm on 17 September 2019. With the album successfully mastered, Nelson turned his attention to the album artwork. Assembly of the sleeve design fell to Martin Bostock working with images prepared by Nelson. 

 

Midway through the recording of Old Haunts, Nelson tabled an idea to hold a launch party, including a live performance of instrumental music, to honour the arrival of the new album.

​

The launch party event was duly arranged for 9 November 2019 at the customary venue of The Clothworker's Hall at Leeds University. Tickets for the event went on sale on 10 August 2019 and sold out within 24 hours. Ticket holders had the opportunity to buy an advance signed copy of the Old Haunts album on the night.

​

The remaining copies (mostly unsigned) were made available to buy through Burning Shed with a pre-sale announcement made on 17 October for a general release on 15 November.

Old Haunts sold out in October 2021.

CURRENT AVAILABILITY:

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

BILL'S THOUGHTS:

"I'm currently working on a new album titled 'Old Haunts'. The starting point is to conjure up a state of beautiful decay, reverie and nostalgia. A twilight world where rain falls gently on rusty factories and streetlamps glow with pale light on abandoned avenues. Well, that's the starting point, but it will inevitably develop and stray."

_____

​

"I have to admit that, all modesty aside for a moment, 'Old Haunts' is going to be a very good album with a great deal of personal insight. At least a couple of the songs are plain speaking, emotional recollections of my past, romantic life. It's a kind of exposing of some areas of my emotional travels, albeit in symbolic, metaphorical terms. But anyone who has followed my story with a certain amount of curiosity may be able to draw the lines between the dots."

​

_____

"I now have 15 tracks completed for the 'Old Haunts' album, all of which, (even if I do say so myself,) are sounding very good. In the main vocal-based, this is going to be one of those albums that I find personally satisfying, both from a conceptual and aesthetic point of view. I may yet create one more track though, a short instrumental to open the album."

​

_____

 

"The album isn't a 'flippant' or casual piece of work, though it does contain some lighter, less intense moments. It's an album for now and (I suspect,) the age I, and some other fans, have arrived at.

It's reflective, pensive, a little melancholy perhaps, but, hopefully, filled with optimism and a contemplative surrender to inevitability but, not without a sense of beauty. I guess it has a 'spiritual' dimension, a hint of 'the other' about it..."

​

_____

​

"On first listen it may seem a bit 'darker' than previous albums, but it's a gentle darkness that sparkles with beautiful light. It's a mature album in some ways, an 'adult' album for grown-ups who seek something with a little more depth and self-reflection, rather than the more 'la-la-la' dancing around your handbag stuff.

It's simply a message from the heart and where I am at this particular point in time, as all my albums are. Just another statement of the here and now, a diary entry, a mark on the calendar. It goes on, ever forward and always in flux..."

​

​

FAN THOUGHTS:

​

Coach Matt:

​

"Purely enjoying Old Haunts that I received today. This CD is putting me on mood swings! Bill knocked out another master piece! Fantastic and brilliant from end to end!! Outrageously Done!!"

​

​

Michael:

​

"First impressions: another diverse lot of songs with the usual superb guitar playing and, to these ears, some newfangled synth, drums and percussion sounds (is this the new drum machine?).

There's also the playfulness, which is always refreshing, though the overall tone is rather somber.

The entire CD is like a journey that should be listened to start to finish. Some of the tracks are downright epic with the intricate arrangements and twists and turns of the drum programming.

I'm looking forward to repeated listens of this one, for sure!"

​

​

Steve Lyles:

​

"Old Haunts is a masterpiece...from first listen the whole album resonated with me...the style, the production, the superb musicianship...not one to compare but l hear hints of Golden Melodies Of Tomorrow and Simplex in the mix...the songs have a complexity and simplicity to them...it does demand an attentive listener and isn't one to cherry pick...it's ridiculous that one man can continue to create such beautiful music after all that has already gone before...long live Bill Nelson."

​

"I love this album and it's been the most played here in Northern Nevada the last year."

​

​

Palladium:

​

"Really loving this album. Abundance of texture, depth, atmosphere, mystery...and lush melodies. Plus sublime guitar of course!"