{"id":9188,"date":"2026-03-05T14:34:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/pink-floyd-its-very-evocative-and-emotional-149115\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T14:34:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:34:39","slug":"pink-floyd-its-very-evocative-and-emotional-149115","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/pink-floyd-its-very-evocative-and-emotional-149115\/","title":{"rendered":"The unexpected return of Pink Floyd: \u201cIt\u2019s very evocative and emotional\u2026\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Originally published in Uncut Take 210 [November 2014 issue], we visit David Gilmour’s houseboat studio on the Thames to discover the secrets of The Endless River…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Originally published in Uncut Take 210 [November 2014 issue], we visit David Gilmour\u2019s houseboat studio on the Thames to discover the secrets of The Endless River\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Signs of activity become apparent<\/h2>\n

On an afternoon in mid-August, Astoria \u2013 the houseboat studio owned by David Gilmour \u2013 seems deceptively quiet. Moored at the end of a sloping garden along a quiet stretch of the River Thames, Gilmour\u2019s handsome Edwardian vessel is usually shut up during the summer holidays. But not, it transpires, this year.<\/p>\n

On closer inspection, signs of activity become apparent. In a large conservatory at the top of the riverside garden, coffee mugs and a small frying pan are stacked in a sink ready for washing up, while a spaniel lolls on a wicker-framed sofa, content in a warm patch of sunlight.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the boat itself \u2013 nearly a victim of the floods that hit this stretch of the Thames earlier in the year \u2013 is open for business. There are lights on in the elegant, mahogany-panelled cabins. The windows are open out across the river, and a breeze gently ruffles the thick curtains in the control room itself, set back at the stern of the boat.<\/p>\n

The first new Pink Floyd album since 1994<\/h2>\n

This is where Pink Floyd worked on A Momentary Lapse Of Reason<\/em> and The Division Bell<\/em>, and where Gilmour himself recorded his most recent solo album, On An Island<\/em>. Lately, however, Astoria has been the site of another astonishing \u2013 and entirely unexpected \u2013 development in the remarkable life of Pink Floyd. <\/p>\n

Today, a length of masking tape is stretched across the 72-channel analogue mixing console, marked in thick, black, felt-tip writing to identify each separate channel. It begins, \u201cside 1\u201d, then \u201ctools\u201d, \u201cbass\u201d, \u201cbaritone\u201d, \u201cleslie gtr\u201d, \u201clead gtr\u201d, \u201cswell melody\u201d. Meanwhile, it is possible to discern other words transcribed along the tape: \u201cwibbly\u201d, \u201ctwank bass\u201d, \u201csplangs\u201d, \u201cend rhodes + ebow\u201d, \u201co\/h\u201d, \u201camb\u201d.<\/p>\n

It becomes apparent that these seemingly arcane signifiers are in fact tantalising evidence of the achievements that have taken place here over the last two years. Nothing less remarkable, that is, than the creation of The Endless River<\/em> \u2013 the first new Pink Floyd album since 1994\u2019s The Division Bell<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels right\u201d<\/h2>\n

Arranged across four sections (called \u201cfour sides\u201d), it is an instrumental album \u2013 with one song \u201cLouder Than Words\u201d embedded within Side Four \u2013 that largely privileges the band\u2019s spacey, ruminative qualities. Reassuringly, the elements for which they are best known \u2013 ethereal synths, acoustic passages, melodic guitar solos, exploratory digressions, sweeping organ \u2013 are all very much to the foreground.<\/p>\n

But critically, there is also another story here. The Endless River<\/em> is a splendid tribute to one of their fallen comrades, the band\u2019s co-founder and keyboardist, Rick Wright, who died on September 15, 2008, aged 65. Indeed, the source of The Endless River lies in material originally recorded in sessions for The Division Bell by Wright, Gilmour and Nick Mason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we finished the Division Bell sessions,\u201d says Gilmour, \u201cwe had many pieces of music, only nine of which had become songs on the LP. Now with Rick gone and with him the chance of ever doing it again, it feels right these revisited tracks should be made available as part of our repertoire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a tribute to him\u201d<\/h2>\n

The work here on Astoria \u2013 and also at Gilmour\u2019s studios in Hove and on his farm in West Sussex, as well as other studios across London \u2013 has largely been carried out under a veil of secrecy. In collaboration with producers Phil Manzanera, Youth and Andy Jackson, Gilmour and Mason have edited and reshaped unused Division Bell<\/em> material and fashioned new parts for The Endless River<\/em>, quietly going about their business undisturbed.<\/p>\n

That was, until July this year, when the threat of a leak prompted Gilmour\u2019s wife, Polly Samson, to break the news on Twitter of this marvellous new undertaking. \u201cBtw Pink Floyd album out in October is called \u2018The Endless River<\/em>\u2019,\u201d she tweeted. \u201cBased on 1994 sessions is Rick Wright\u2019s swansong and very beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a tribute to him,\u201d acknowledges Gilmour. \u201cI mean, to me, it\u2019s very evocative and emotional in a lot of moments. And listening to all the stuff made me regret his passing all over again. This is the last chance someone will get to hear him playing along with us in that way that he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d just press record\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cI think the most significant element was really hearing what Rick did,\u201d agrees Nick Mason. \u201cHaving lost Rick, it really brought home what a special player he was. And I think that was one of the elements that caught us up in it and made us think we ought to do something with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andy Jackson has good memories of The Division Bell<\/em> sessions. As Pink Floyd\u2019s long-standing engineer, Jackson was present when Gilmour, Wright and Mason convened at Astoria, after a week\u2019s jamming at Mason\u2019s Britannia Row studios, in early 1993.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea was to try and find kernels for songs,\u201d he explains. \u201cThat was the way they had always historically worked, up until I suppose The Wall<\/em> and maybe even Animals<\/em>. It was a very deliberate attempt to try and get back to that ethos, because they felt it gave them something they didn\u2019t get by going off into separate corners and writing. It was recorded in a very minimalistic way. Just a handful of mics set up. They fed into a DAT machine sitting by David and as soon as anything started happening that was good, he\u2019d just press record.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Big Spliff\u201d<\/h2>\n

As Jackson remembers, \u201ca pile of tapes of jams\u201d was brought to Astoria and a sifting process began, with the band, producer Bob Ezrin and Jackson whittling down a long list of over 60 pieces of music to the nine that became The Division Bell<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, we had considered making The Division Bell<\/em> as a two-part record,\u201d says Mason. \u201cHalf to be songs, and the other a series of ambient instrumental pieces. Eventually, we decided to make it a single album and inevitably much of the preparation work remained unused.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI took it upon myself to make The Big Spliff,\u201d admits Jackson, \u201cwhich was just a comical title I came up with. It never got thought about again, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

These remaining tapes, meanwhile, were assiduously catalogued in Gilmour\u2019s warehouse. \u201cIt has a massive tape store,\u201d Jackson reveals. \u201cFortunately, we\u2019re very anal about that. We library absolutely everything, including hardware. We\u2019ve still got the computer we did those sessions on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEbow noodle\u201d<\/h2>\n

Jackson describes the over-matter as ranging from \u201cundeveloped\u201d to \u201cpsychedelic instrumental noodles\u201d comparable to the middle section from \u201cEchoes\u201d. The tapes \u2013 marked functionally as \u201cDAT 1, piece 7\u201d, \u201cBrit Row 1\u201d or perhaps with the slightly more descriptive \u201cEbow noodle\u201d \u2013 remained in Gilmour\u2019s tape store, untouched.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Pink Floyd ended their Division Bell<\/em> tour on October 29, 1994 at Earl\u2019s Court and entered into what Mason wryly describes in his autobiography Inside Out as \u201ca significant cessation of activity\u201d. Nevertheless, Gilmour called on Wright to play his 2005 album On An Island<\/em> and, critically, the subsequent tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cA second honeymoon\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cThey had a great time,\u201d says Andy Jackson. \u201cThey hadn\u2019t been on stage together for an awfully long time. Particularly smaller stages, not the humungadomes. Doing a theatre tour, they can see the whites of each other\u2019s eyes. Things like that middle bit of \u2018Echoes\u2019, where they\u2019re trading licks, they\u2019re looking at each other and getting that spark again.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid was really full about how much he enjoyed playing with Rick again, how special it was. In some ways, with Rick coming back into the fold after not having been involved in The Final Cut<\/em> at all, then the remoteness of the whole thing when it got so huge, then finding it again, it was almost like a second honeymoon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRick was so happy\u201d<\/h2>\n

Phil Manzanera, the Roxy Music guitarist who co-produced On An Island<\/em> and played on the tour, recalls a moment between Gilmour and Wright during what proved to be the keyboard player\u2019s final live show. \u201cWe played in Gdansk, at the shipyard, the biggest gig of David\u2019s solo tour. We played \u2018Echoes\u2019. I only know this because I ended up mixing the live album from that tour and choosing the tracks we\u2019d recorded and all the different gigs, but that night the version was 20 minutes long.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe interplay between him and David\u2026 Rick was so happy. He was right back at the top of his game, and I looked round and saw him playing away and David answering on guitar. That was the most spectacular version of \u2018Echoes\u2019. People loved it on that tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t that long after that tour that Rick died,\u201d continues Jackson. \u201cI think David was really aware of what he\u2019d lost, both personally but also musically. In some ways, that became the seed that led to this album. \u2018There won\u2019t be any more Rick, but there is a bunch of material we\u2019ve got from the past that we never used\u2026\u2019 I think that was the spark that grew into David saying, \u2018Shall we see what we\u2019ve got..?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRick was so happy\u201d<\/h2>\n

Looking back on Rick Wright\u2019s contribution to Pink Floyd, Nick Mason considers, \u201cWhere he really is unique, is this thing in him of being able to come up with ideas and just work them into whatever else is going on at any given moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manzanera, meanwhile, describes Wright as \u201ca hippie musician, in it for the music\u201d and that he \u201cprovided a very broad musical context for David to play his guitar into and, earlier, for Syd to put his songs into. He held his line right through the career and provided sonority. You take that out of the equation, and it doesn\u2019t sound like Pink Floyd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Youth, for his part, cites a song like \u201cOne Of The Days\u201d as emblematic of Wright\u2019s considerable talents.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis Farfisa, his organ playing\u2026 I can\u2019t think of anyone I\u2019d rather listen to on an organ that him. \u2018The Great Gig In The Sky\u2019 is up there with Beethoven and Bach. It\u2019s an absolutely stunning piece of music. Wish You Were Here<\/em> is probably my favourite album, and it\u2019s mainly Rick. The long, drawn-out keyboard sections, his Moog lead lines. Listening to them now, they remind me of the more German, Tangerine Dream-style ambient passages, but he managed to imbue then with a very English, very pastoral sensibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cMelancholic and whimsical\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something very melancholic and whimsical at the same time with them. It\u2019s beautiful music, emotionally enchanting. He\u2019s always had a massive part to play with me for Pink Floyd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing in Inside Out, Mason noted, \u201cRick perhaps never received the credit \u2013 both inside and outside the band \u2013 that he deserved for his talents, but the distinctive, floating textures and colours he brought into the mix were absolutely critical to what people recognize as the sound of Pink Floyd. Musically he knitted us all together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evidently, then, it was essential that The Endless River<\/em> deliver not only a Pink Floyd album strong enough to stand alongside its many illustrious predecessors; but also one that provided a substantial showcase for Wright\u2019s craftsmanship. Sitting in his smart north London studio, Phil Manzanera recalls his own first hand experiences with Wright.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very astute and could speak very well. Although he didn\u2019t seem to have done tons of interviews, when he did, he really nailed it. He could verbalise a lot of what the music was about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA 20 hour epic listening session\u201d<\/h2>\n

Close by Manzanera sits his cherished Gibson Firebird VII, a strap wound round it with Manzanera\u2019s nickname, \u2018El Magnifico\u2019, picked out in metal studs. On the wall, above a compact black mixing desk built into a wooden frame, hangs a large burgundy carpet. This is where, among other projects, work was partly done on the aborted Roxy Music album from 2005, and where his old friend Robert Wyatt is soon due to record some new music.<\/p>\n

Sipping a herbal tea, Manzanera considers an invitation he received in August 2012 from David Gilmour.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just said, \u2018There\u2019s this stuff. Do you fancy having a listen to it, to see if there\u2019s anything there?\u2019 So I went down to Astoria. Andy Jackson was there and Damon Iddins, who also works for the studio. I said, \u2018Right, I\u2019ve come to listen to the stuff.\u2019 That was when I heard that Andy had put together a thing early on called The Big Spliff, which rather annoyingly I said, \u2018I don\u2019t wanna hear. I wanna hear every single piece or scrap that was recorded, everything. Outtakes from Division Bell<\/em>. Everything.\u2019 So we commenced on a 20 hour epic listening session over six weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow am I going to organize this?\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cPhil was heavily involved in On An Island<\/em>,\u201d says Andy Jackson. \u201cOne of the things he did for David, again because he had a huge amount of potential material, Phil was really good at keeping track of everything. He\u2019d have lists and say, \u2018That piece you\u2019re playing there. Remember that bit there, that could go really well as a middle eight in this\u2026\u2019 He was really helpful to David in that way and it was an obvious thing for David to say, \u2018Do you want to do that process again?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got a very good archiving system,\u201d Manzanera continues. \u201cSo you can even find footage from them doing those original jams at Britannia Row. They\u2019re not pretty \u2013 it\u2019s like CCTV footage. But you have got footage, and footage of them on the boat. The material was all on different formats. They were on DAT, some were on stereo DAT, some bits were on 24 track, and some bits were on half-inch tape.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a notebook, and every time I heard something that I liked, I wrote it down. I had pages and pages. When they\u2019re looking through the tapes, there\u2019s time to think. \u2018Okay, what the fuck am I going to do? I\u2019ve got 20 hours of stuff. How am I going to organize this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI visualized a scenario with a tone\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cPhil logged everything, recorded everything,\u201d continues Jackson. \u201cHe thought about it and jigsaw puzzled and came up with the concept: \u2018Let\u2019s think of it like a symphony, let\u2019s make four pieces that are 10, 12 minutes long that are thematic and it flows like a classical piece would. We made a mash up at that point. The vast bulk of it was from these stereo DAT tapes. It was a skeleton at this point. It\u2019s like Masterchef. \u2018We can do this, here\u2019s a dish.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t what\u2019s on the album now,\u201d Manzanera stresses, \u201cbut I needed a narrative. I visualized a scenario with a tone, which no one can hear that is a product of the cosmic bang. Let\u2019s have it so only people in a certain frequency can hear the tone. Eventually it arrives at the tunnel entrance to Astoria, under the road. The door clanks, and you can hear them walking on the gravel towards the boat, the three of them, our heroes, come onto Astoria and start jamming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the first section. The second section, the boat takes off and we\u2019re in outer space. They arrive on a planet that is all acoustic. Then there\u2019s this end bit, where it goes back. So I had this narrative and I started putting all the things together. I would take a guitar solo from another track, change the key of it, stick it on an outtake from another track\u2026 \u2018Oh, that bit there, it reminds me of Live On Pompeii<\/em>, but let\u2019s put a beat underneath it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like moving court\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cSo then I\u2019d take a bit of Nick warming up in the studio at Olympia or something, take a little bit of a fill here and a little bit of a fill there. Join it together, making a loop out of it. My brief was to use what was there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two months later, in December, 2012, Manzanera presented his workings to Gilmour at Astoria. \u201cI think he thought, \u2018This guy\u2019s mad,\u2019\u201d laughs Manzanera. \u201cHe said, \u2018Can you play it to Nick?\u2019 So I got him here, played it to him. He could see the potential in it, but he was slightly worried. It\u2019s a lot more extreme that how it ended up. But they saw there was enough stuff there to make something good. It ticked all the Pink Floyd boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid had started writing his own album and he didn\u2019t want to get torn away from it,\u201d Jackson explains. \u201cHe ends up being quite busy all the time, not least of all living in two different houses. He lives in one in the week and another in the weekend. It\u2019s like moving court. Children, nannies and dogs. So the logistics of every day life become\u2026\u201d he pauses. \u201cAnd the social life\u2026 Tuesdays and Thursdays, go to the gym and its like the week\u2019s gone. So it sat on the back burner for a while. I\u2019m know sure he knew what to do with it or where to react to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most sublime psychedelic music ever made\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cRick was and, I later discovered, has always been a bit shy,\u201d reflects Youth. \u201cA bit more gentle. More spacey. David\u2019s quite anchored. Weirdly enough, there\u2019s nothing really that psychedelic about any of them. Yet together they make the most sublime psychedelic music ever made. You know, there\u2019s lots of ironic things going on there.\u201d Youth is sitting in the living room of his south London home. Behind him, towering bookshelves line an entire wall.<\/p>\n

There are volumes by Colin Wilson, Joseph Campbell and Freud. The Psychedelics Encyclopedia rests on a copy of The Classic Whisky Guide. Resting in the fireplace is a giant painting of Rupert Bear and the Wise Old Goat, staring out into the cosmos. A platinum disc for the Verve\u2019s Urban Hymns<\/em>, which Youth co-produced, hangs on the wall opposite, while a light fitting in the shape of a huge pineapple hangs from the centre of the ceiling.<\/p>\n

Youth has history of his own with Pink Floyd. A friend of the band\u2019s bass player, Guy Pratt, he worked with Floyd backing vocalist Durga McBroom in Blue Pearl; indeed, Gilmour and Wright guested on their 1990 album, Naked<\/em>. He worked again with Gilmour on the Orb\u2019s 2010 album, Metallic Spheres<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always surprises me\u201d<\/h2>\n

As with Manzanera, Youth recalls getting a call \u201cout of the blue, which I do usually from David. He always surprises me. He\u2019s very frank and forthright. There\u2019s no flutter or decoration in his communication. This call was last June. He said \u2018I\u2019ve got this thing I\u2019ve been working on, it\u2019s not quite been working out. Could you come down and have a listen?\u2019 I said \u2018Yeah, I\u2019d be delighted.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I jumped on the train, he picked me up and we drove to his farm in Sussex. David\u2019s got this amazing studio at the top of a barn. He put on this track up there. I was expecting to hear solo material. Within about 40 seconds, it sounded like Floyd. It was an absolutely magical moment. The window was open and there were birds singing outside. June in England is the most beautiful place in the world you could be, listening to unreleased Pink Floyd recordings with David, the hair was going up on the back of my arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gone as far as I can\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cThen David explained that Phil had spent days going through all the archive tapes and DATs, and had put together these four pieces. What was interesting as well was that David had been working on it with Phil and without Phil. He said, \u2018I\u2019ve gone as far as I can, I just don\u2019t know. What do you think?\u2019 We discussed it. I thought that maybe the arrangements weren\u2019t quite right. Because some of it\u2019s \u201890s Floyd, it doesn\u2019t sound that much like Floyd. I said, \u2018Maybe I could take the sessions and play around with them, experiment with some different arrangements and see if we can make it flow better or work better.\u2019 He said fine. His parting words were, \u2018Make sure it sounds like us!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the many marvellous treasures unearthed by Jackson and Iddins from Gilmour\u2019s tape store was a recording dated from June 26, 1969, of Wright playing the Albert Hall pipe organ during rehearsals for the Floyd\u2019s show there that evening. \u201cThere was 20 minutes of that,\u201d says Youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at that point, Rick was toying with ideas for writing a symphony.\u201d Taking all the material to his studio in Spain, he began rearranging and extending sections. As illustrative guides for Gilmour, he added guitar lines where he felt appropriate. At the same time, he was fighting a severe parasitic infection: \u201cI thought, \u2018Even if I die in a week, or a day. I\u2019ve gotta finish this before I go \u2013 and don\u2019t hold back!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExplain to me exactly what you\u2019ve done\u201d<\/h2>\n

According to Andy Jackson\u2019s diary, on November 4, 2013, David Gilmour and Nick Mason met with Manzanera, Youth and Jackson on Astoria to review the work done so far on the project. \u201cDavid said, \u2018Explain to me exactly what you\u2019ve done,\u2019\u201d says Manzanera. \u201cFrom that day onwards, he took possession of the thing. He said, \u2018We\u2019re changing the goalposts. So, okay, there\u2019s only me and Nick, but we\u2019re going to take a bit of what Youth\u2019s done, bits of what you\u2019ve done, bits of what Andy\u2019s done and we\u2019re gonna work it and I want you all to be there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Events moved remarkably swiftly after that. Jackson\u2019s diary records that they gathered again in Gilmour\u2019s home studio in Hove a week later, on November 11: a momentous date, as it turned out. This was the first time that David Gilmour and Nick Mason had recorded new Pink Floyd music since The Division Bell<\/em> sessions. Says Mason, \u201cWith encouragement from Andy, Phil and Youth, David and myself either re-recorded, or added some parts. Despite an element of trepidation, I found it to be a really enjoyable and satisfying experience, rather like uncovering lost gems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember one of those early times, when we all met up here,\u201d says Jackson, perched on a seat near his beloved Neve 88R console in Astoria. \u201cNick was very concerned about, \u2018I only want to do this if we make something good.\u2019 We\u2019re taking some stuff from 20 years ago \u2013 because it\u2019s got Rick on it \u2013 but is it actually up to standard? As it got fleshed out, and turned into the album proper, everyone got revved up about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid and Nick are both in a really good place at the moment\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cI think David and Nick are both in a really good place at the moment,\u201d adds Youth. \u201cAlso because Rick\u2019s no longer with us, there\u2019s a poignancy to them being together that seems to transcend all the problems that they\u2019ve had in the past. There were concerns as to whether they\u2019d be into it, or whether Nick would be up for it. But Nick was absolutely core to the project, and the amazing thing about those two musicians is that whenever they play, whatever they\u2019re playing, they sound like them. They can\u2019t help it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Mason\u2019s drums were the first element to be officially recorded for the album on November 11. \u201cNick came down and was just great, straight away,\u201d remembers Manzanera. \u201cIt sounded like what Robert Wyatt calls \u2018Pink Floyd time\u2019. It was just magic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sessions lasted for three days, overdubbing guitars and recording drums; the following week, they were back in Hove for two days, then back at Astoria on Wednesday, November 20 to review the material. The process of adding new overdubs and layers continued through the winter and into early 2014. In total, Jackson estimates the work took 30 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was about illustrating Rick\u2019s genius\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cIt became an interactive process of mixing and recording. You put drums on this, flesh this bit out, this bit needs a guitar solo. Then you assimilate that, do a layer of mixing to make it sound like a record and then go, \u2018Great, but this has revealed that we now need this\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really about illustrating Rick\u2019s genius,\u201d adds Youth. \u201cSo we navigated around his keyboards to give them as much spotlight as possible. Although it was quite a delicate and time consuming task, it works really well and they adjusted to it. It was a joy to see David and Nick playing together and joking with each other between takes \u2013 to see their rapport with each other, all harnessed to Rick\u2019s playing. Their humour is very dry.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day, I wanted some more gongs. Nick asked his drum tech, \u2018Where\u2019s my gong?\u2019 His tech said, \u2018I think it\u2019s in that drum shop in Camden.\u2019 Nick had helped this guy keep his drum shop going a few years ago and donated some kit to it that he had in the window, including the gong. The gong arrived and we started overdubbing it to various bits. David came in and said \u2018Where\u2019s that from?\u2019 and Nick replied \u2018Oh, it\u2019s from this drum shop up in Camden. I lent it to them, and they\u2019re lending it back.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the dynamics of being in bands\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cSo they started joking about the gong. I remember David and Nick in the studio giving each other a hug, and David giving Nick the affirmation of his drumming being amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the key elements of The Endless River<\/em> is \u201cLouder Than Words\u201d, the album\u2019s one conventional song. Introduced on a bed of stately keyboard melodies and acoustic flourishes, a more solid structure gradually emerges to carry Gilmour\u2019s first new Pink Floyd vocal in 20 years. With lyrics co-written with Polly Samson, \u201cLouder Than Words\u201d is concerned with providing an appropriate full stop to the Pink Floyd saga, embracing the full history of the band across nearly 50 years \u2013 as Gilmour sings, \u201cWe bitch and we fight\u2026 but this thing that we do\u2026 it\u2019s louder than words\u2026 the sum of our parts\u2026 the beat of our hearts\u2026 it\u2019s louder than words\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Manzanera describes it as \u201ca comment on their methods of working over their whole careers; it seemed like a fitting summation of the complexity of the music.\u201d Jackson, meanwhile, considers \u201cit\u2019s about the dynamics of being in bands, which I\u2019ve always thought of as Big Brother on wheels. It\u2019s a bunch of people locked in a box together for a long period of time. You become best of friends and worst of enemies all at the same time. It becomes its own microcosm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a big Leonard Cohen fan\u201d<\/h2>\n

The song was recorded during the latter part of The Endless River<\/em> sessions, at Gilmour\u2019s home studio in Hove. \u201cBoth Phil and myself had been pushing David to get the lyric and get the vocal,\u201d recalls Youth. \u201cEveryone around him was saying how he hates doing vocals, and he always leaves them to the last minute\u2026 He does this amazing thing when he\u2019s composing and gets a melody. He does this skat vocal. It is absolutely perfect. Apparently, that\u2019s how he did \u2018Comfortably Numb\u2019. I\u2019ve never heard a singer skat a lead vocal so exact, and with the right emotion and everything. So we had this skat vocal, and then we waited for Polly and David to come up with the lyrics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIntellectually, David had come up with a concept that when he went into the chorus, he would go low and the girls would go an octave up from him,\u201d continues Jackson.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a big Leonard Cohen fan, and that\u2019s something Leonard does a lot. Because the studio was in his home, he\u2019d try it every day until he got all the lines he wanted. I was there for the initial thing, but he ended up just doing it alone after a while. It had been a while since he sang, so he had to get his voice limbered up, just a bit every day. It\u2019s now the closing part of the album, but it was originally the end of part three. But we rejigged three and four about, moved some sections around. It made a lot more sense at the end of the record. It\u2019s a bit like, \u2018You have been listening to\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA Pink Floyd album for the 21st<\/sup> century\u201d<\/h2>\n

Additional work followed \u2013 Youth recorded backing vocals with Durga McBroom in his south London studio, while Manzanera recorded clarinet and sax contributions from Gilad Atzmon at Astoria. Youth remembers Guy Pratt also returning to record new bass parts. Jackson is keen to stress the fluid nature of the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a very blurred line between mixing and recording. It was a constantly interactive process. We were still working on it quite recently. I\u2019ve got August 6 in my diary, I was in here and David\u2019s saying \u2018Yeeaaaah, maybe we should cut one cycle out of that bit.\u2019 Meanwhile, it had already gone to James Guthrie in California for mastering. \u2018You know that bit you just did? You\u2019re going to have to do it again\u2026\u2019 There\u2019s odd bits of dialogue on the album and even really late David wanted to get rid of one. Which meant that I was having to put it back on the board and remix a section. That was August. You wouldn\u2019t have done that in the past because you couldn\u2019t. Pandora\u2019s Box is well and truly open.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering the extraordinary circumstances around its genesis, and the processes diligently undertaken to complete The Endless River, Phil Manzanera muses that this is \u201ca Pink Floyd album for the 21st<\/sup> century.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it hadn\u2019t been for the leak\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cIf it hadn\u2019t been for the leak, this wouldn\u2019t exist yet,\u201d acknowledges Andy Jackson in mid-August, while the waters of the Thames lap gently at the flanks of Astoria. \u201cStill no one knows where it came from. It was genuinely a leak. At that point, Warners and Sony knew about it and that increases the number of people massively. They don\u2019t seem like the likely source, but it certainly wasn\u2019t any of us within the inner circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polly Samson\u2019s pre-emptive Tweet on July 5 may have revealed this fresh twist in the Pink Floyd narrative earlier than intended, but all the same it reflected the band\u2019s pervasive ability to adapt and survive. Historically, the band have reinvented themselves on many occasions: first, following Syd Barrett\u2019s departure, then after the transitional, experimental run of albums in the late Sixties to mid Seventies, and again when Roger Waters\u2019 left.<\/p>\n

With The Endless River<\/em>, their 15th<\/sup> studio album, they\u2019ve mutated once again; using elements of their past to find a place in the present day. Manzanera describes the record as having \u201cthat Pink Floyd slow groove, that if you\u2019re in the right mood just washes through you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s part documentary, this album\u201d<\/h2>\n

Certainly, across its four sides the album it focuses on the more atmospheric and digressive aspects of Pink Floyd\u2019s music. From the guitar loops and snippets of conversation (\u201cThis is what we do, we turn up and we play\u201d) at the start of the first side, on through Rick Wright\u2019s improvised jams with Gilmour, it feels very much of a piece with the band\u2019s cherished exploratory journeys. Manzanera flags up \u201cthe classic Farfisa, arpeggiated sound that to me is Pink Floyd, from \u2018Arnold Layne\u2019 right through Dark Side Of The Moon<\/em>\u201d that runs through the second side.<\/p>\n

Side three contains more typically articulate guitar work from Gilmour laid against delicate piano and scrupulous keyboard passages from Wright; as well as the 1969 Albert Hall organ recording. The Endless River<\/em> finishes with \u201cLouder Than Words\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s part documentary, this album,\u201d notes Manzanera. \u201cIt captures a moment where they were jamming, but it also captures a bit of talking from interviews, and the Albert Hall.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAddictions, broken marriages, the band collapsing\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cThose guys, they\u2019ve all been through so much,\u201d offers Youth. \u201cAddictions, broken marriages, the band collapsing, reinventing itself. All the dramas you could have in a Shakespeare play. Them coming together now has this air of redemption. It would have been wonderful if Rick had been alive to share in that. But nevertheless, to do this took a lot of courage, and fearless emotional strength. If these guys can work together again and find the harmony out of discord that has happened, then anyone can. I found it very beautiful to bear witness to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had got into what one might call a professional way of making records,\u201d reflects Nick Mason. \u201cNever really suited to it. The thing of constructing a thing more carefully, having specific parts. But actually,\u201d \u2013 he adds, considering Wright\u2019s work \u2013 \u201cwhat\u2019s great is when you\u2019ve got musicians who just shine when they\u2019re not given the part and are just allowed to be creative in their own right.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post The unexpected return of Pink Floyd: \u201cIt\u2019s very evocative and emotional\u2026\u201d<\/a> appeared first on UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published in Uncut Take 210 [November 2014 issue], we visit David Gilmour’s houseboat studio on the Thames to discover the secrets of The Endless River… Originally published in Uncut…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,35,3090],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-interviews","category-pink-floyd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}