page_title: The Endless River
section_title: Recording
hierarchical_section_title: The Endless River / Recording
caption_attribution_description: Nick Mason and David Gilmour at Roger Waters The Wall Live show in London
context_page_description: The Endless River is the fifteenth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released in November 2014 by Parlophone Records in Europe and Columbia Records in the rest of the world. It was the third Pink Floyd album recorded under the leadership of guitarist David Gilmour after the departure of bassist Roger Waters in 1985, and the first following the death in 2008 of keyboardist Richard Wright, who appears posthumously. Gilmour said it would be the final Pink Floyd album.
  The Endless River comprises instrumental and ambient music based on material recorded during sessions for the band's previous album, The Division Bell. Additional material was recorded in 2013 and 2014 on Gilmour's Astoria boat studio and in Medina Studios in Hove, England. It was produced by Gilmour, Youth, Andy Jackson and Phil Manzanera. Only one track, "Louder than Words", has lead vocals. After the death of longtime Pink Floyd artist Storm Thorgerson in 2013, the cover was created by artist Ahmed Emad Eldin, design company Stylorouge, and Aubrey Powell, co-founder of Thorgerson's design company Hipgnosis.
context_section_description: The Endless River is based on music recorded during the sessions for Pink Floyd's previous studio album, The Division Bell (1994). The Division Bell was recorded in 1993 and 1994 in Britannia Row Studios in London, and on the Astoria boat studio, belonging to guitarist David Gilmour. Pink Floyd recorded several hours of music during the sessions; engineer Andy Jackson edited it into an hour-long ambient composition tentatively titled The Big Spliff, but the band did not release it. 
  Keyboardist Richard Wright died of cancer on 15 September 2008. In 2012, Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason decided to revisit the unused Division Bell recordings to make a new album, rerecording parts, adding new ones, and using modern studio technology. Gilmour said: "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." Only a small part of The Big Spliff was used.
  Gilmour asked guitarist and producer Phil Manzanera, who co-produced his 2006 solo album On an Island, to work on the material. Manzanera, Jackson and engineer Damon Iddins spent six weeks assembling four 14-minute pieces. Gilmour gave two pieces to producer Youth, who added guitar and bass parts. In November 2013, Gilmour led sessions with Manzanera, Youth and Jackson to record material with Mason, saxophonist Gilad Atzmon and bassist Guy Pratt. Vocalists including Durga McBroom recorded backing vocals, and Gilmour recorded lead vocals on "Louder than Words", with lyrics by his wife, author Polly Samson. Bassist and songwriter Roger Waters, who left Pink Floyd in 1985, was not involved.
  "Autumn '68", named in reference to the 1970 Pink Floyd song "Summer '68", features a recording of Wright playing the Royal Albert Hall pipe organ during the rehearsal for a show on 26 June 1969. "Talkin' Hawkin'" contains a sample of scientist Stephen Hawking's speech taken from a British Telecom commercial also sampled for The Division Bell on "Keep Talking". Mason received writing credits for "Sum", and "Skins", a two-and-a-half-minute drum solo. Gilmour said that he was "pretty certain" that The Endless River would be the final Pink Floyd album.
caption: Drummer Nick Mason (left) and guitarist David Gilmour (right) took up the project in 2013, intending to create "a 21st-century Pink Floyd album".
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