The Endless River represents a return to the creative principles that informed the writing process that produced Pink Floyd classics like Echoes, Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Animals.
In early 1993, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright set up their equipment in their own Britannia Row Studios in Islington and created more than hundred pieces of music by jamming together, interacting with each other's performances and recording the results.
They then honed the pieces at David's Astoria floating studio, played them live for 2 days at Olympic Studios in Barnes with an extended lineup (Guy Pratt on bass, Jon Carin on keyboards and Gary Wallis on percussion). After that, the core trio returned to Astoria, and worked further on the compositions, alongside co-producer Bob Ezrin, refining the structure, tempos and arrangements. The result, after lyrics and vocals were added, was the 12 million selling 'Division Bell' album.
At the time, there had been talk of a separate ambient album being created from the non-vocal tracks not subsequently issued on 'The Division Bell', but the idea was eventually dropped.
In 2014 David Gilmour and Nick Mason re-entered the studio and, starting with unreleased keyboard performances by Richard Wright, who sadly died in 2008, added further instrumentation to the tracks, as well as creating new material. The result is The Endless River, including 60% of recordings other than the 1993 sessions, but based upon them. The title is a further link, '... the endless river…' being part of the closing phrases of High Hopes, the final song of the previous Pink Floyd album.
David Gilmour describes the record as follows: "The Endless River has as its starting point the music that came from the 1993 Division Bell sessions. We listened to over 20 hours of the three of us playing together and selected the music we wanted to work on for the new album. Over the last year we've added new parts, re-recorded others and generally harnessed studio technology to make a 21st century Pink Floyd album. With Rick gone, and with him the chance of ever doing it again, it feels right that these revisited and reworked tracks should be made available as part of our repertoire."
Stylistically, The Endless River includes all of the musical elements that characterize Pink Floyd: mellifluous keyboards, jazz-tinged drums, musique concrete, ethereal vocals, and distinctive, emotional lead guitar. As well as Pink Floyd's trademark backing vocals, there is one vocal track, with lyrics by author Polly Samson, who also contributed to The Division Bell. Double 180 gm vinyl LP pressing in a gatefold sleeve with full color inner sleeves, a 16 page deluxe booklet with rare photos from the 1993 session plus digital download. 2014 release, the 15th and final studio album from the veteran British Rock band. David Gilmour and Nick Mason went back and completed previously unreleased material recorded with the late Rick Wright. Gilmour began work on this project by returning to some 20 hours of leftover material plus material recorded with Pink Floyd touring musicians Guy Pratt on bass, Jon Carin on keyboards and Gary Wallis on percussion. A portion of these original recordings became THE DIVISION BELL, while the rest remained in the vaults. The album was co-produced with Phil Manzanera, Youth and Andy Jackson.
- Format: Vinyl
- Released: 11/10/2014
- Genre: Rock
- Double Black Vinyl
- Heavyweight Vinyl
- Gatefold Jacket
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TRACKS
A1 Things Left Unsaid
A2 It's What We Do
A3 Ebb And Flow
B1 Sum
B2 Skins
B3 Unsung
B4 Anisina
C1 The Lost Art Of Conversation
C2 On Noodle Street
C3 Night Light
C4 Allons-y (1)
C5 Autumn '68
C6 Allons-y (2)
C7 Talkin' Hawkin'
D1 Calling
D2 Eyes To Pearls
D3 Surfacing
D4 Louder Than Words
