Nelson pursued different artistic directions. Two "Rosewood" releases contained acoustic guitar pieces "submitted to electronic and digital processing." The highly personal "The Alchemical Adventures of Sailor Bill," was a concept album about the English coastline, ships and the sea, while its more ambient, instrumental companion piece "Neptune's Galaxy" comprised five long form instrumental compositions exploring the same subject. Of the former, Nelson wrote, "this set of songs comes (closer) to being personally fulfilling as almost any other album of mine." Most of the decade's remaining albums were lead electric guitar-oriented and non-vocal. Improvisation against pre-recorded backing tracks played a major role in "And We Fell into A Dream" while the very different "Theatre of Falling Leaves" eschewed lead guitar in favour of keyboards. The decade closed with more voice-based material as Nelson crooned through "Golden Melodies of Tomorrow", delivered more familiar rock and ballad vocals on "Fancy Planets" and delved into romantic songwriting in "The Dream Transmission Pavilion".