MUMBAI: Psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd announced it is coming up with a brand new album, ‘The Endless River’, after more than twenty years. The almost all-instrumental album, which will be released as a four-sided album, has been in the making since 1994.
The album will be available on 10 November this year. Nick Mason, drummer of the band said that the new album is a tribute to Rick Wright, the band’s keyboardist who died in 2008 and whose playing was described as “at the heart of the Pink Floyd sound”.
They also unveiled the cover art of the album, which shows a man on a boat travelling through tempestuous ‘rivers’ of clouds while facing the horizon. This concept was the brainchild of an 18 year old Egyptian digital artiste Ahmed Emad Eldin. The album artwork is designed by Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell, Pink Floyd’s creative director who designed the iconic covers for ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ and a few other Pink Floyd albums, along with Storm Thorgerson who passed away in 2013.
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Powell said, “When we saw Ahmed’s image, it had an instant ‘Floydian’ resonance. It is enigmatic and open to interpretation, and is a cover that works so well for ‘The Endless River’.”
The album does not involve bassist and singer Roger Waters, who left the band in 1985. The songs on the latest album were recorded and written by remaining members- David Gilmour, Mason and Wright in 1993 during the sessions for their album ‘The Division Bell’.
Gilmour said in a statement, “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 have added new parts, re-recorded others and generally harnessed studio technology to make a 21st century Pink Floyd album.”
He added, “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.”
Mason expressed, “I think this record is a good way of recognising a lot of what he (Rick) does and how his playing was at the heart of the Pink Floyd sound. Listening back to the sessions, it really brought home to me what a special player he was.”
