This is one of the rarest of Bill Nelson's ambient instrumental albums. These eight tracks were originally created for a live performance in Wakefield Cathedral as part of the city's 1990 Arts Festival. The performance was titled 'Opus Illuminatus' and featured live improvisations on guitar (by Bill) and saxophone (by his younger brother Ian), played over interactive 'backing tracks'. These tracks (without the live overdubbed guitar and saxophone), were released as an extremely limited 500 edition cassette only item in 1990...
They became highly collectable and were never made available as an official CD album until now.
This unique and very special download only re-issue features superb digital remastering by Bill's long time, Fairview Studio's, associate John Spence. It presents, for the first time ever, an opportunity to hear this music at an audio quality previously denied the original limited edition cassette release. It also features fabulous new artwork by David Graham.
Even without the live performance guitar and sax improvisations, these mysterious and mystical pieces stand up as valuable in their own right and will be enthusiastically welcomed by fans.
The download includes the PDF artwork.
Sonoluxe CD032
For further album information and fan reviews visit www.billnelson.com/altar-pieces
Founder of Be-Bop Deluxe in 1973, guitarist Bill Nelson wrote all of the bands material. Signed to EMI, the band released five studio albums and scored a top ten UK hit with the single "Ships In The Night."
In 1979 Bill disbanded Be-Bop Deluxe and launched Red Noise.
As a solo artist he's worked with David Sylvian, Harold Budd and Cabaret Voltaire as well as producing The Skids and Gary Numan.