Pink Floyd "The Endless River"

The Endless River is the fifteenth and final studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd. It was released on 7 November 2014 in Friday-release countries and on 10 November elsewhere by Parlophone Records in the United Kingdom and by Columbia Records in the United States. It was the third Pink Floyd album led by guitarist and singer David Gilmour following Roger Waters' departure in 1985 and the first following the death of keyboardist Rick Wright in 2008, who appears posthumously.

The Endless River consists almost entirely of instrumental and ambient music based on material Pink Floyd wrote, recorded and produced with Wright during sessions for their previous album The Division Bell (1994). New material was recorded in 2013 and 2014 aboard Gilmour's Astoria boat studio and in Medina Studios in Hove, England. It was produced by Gilmour, Youth, Andy Jackson and Phil Manzanera. The cover art concept is by Ahmed Emad Eldin, with final artwork by Stylorouge and creative direction by Aubrey Powell.

The album was promoted with the single "Louder than Words" and artwork installations in cities including London, New York, Paris, Berlin, and Milan. It became the most pre-ordered album of all time on Amazon UK, and debuted at number one in several countries. The vinyl edition was the fastest-selling UK vinyl release since 1997. The album received mixed reviews.

After the departure of founding member Roger Waters in 1985 and his failed attempt to dissolve the band, guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour became the leader of Pink Floyd. He and drummer Nick Mason invited keyboardist Richard Wright back to the band after Waters had fired him during the recording of The Wall (1979). Under Gilmour's leadership, Pink Floyd recorded two studio albums: A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994). The latter saw a greater participation from Wright, who shared his first writing credits on a Pink Floyd album since Wish You Were Here (1975), and recorded his first lead vocal since The Dark Side of the Moon (1973). The sessions were held in 1993 and 1994 in Britannia Row Studios in London and aboard the Astoria boat studio.

According to Wright, during the sessions Pink Floyd recorded "four 90-minute DATs of five or six hours of music. The hardest thing was to throw things out and decide what we're gonna work on ... but they are not lost. They are in my head, they are in Dave's head." Pink Floyd engineer Andy Jackson edited the material, described by Mason as ambient music, to an hour-long composition tentatively titled The Big Spliff; the band decided not to release it.


Wright died of an undisclosed form of cancer on 15 September 2008 at the age of 65. Tributes to Wright included statements from Gilmour, Mason and Waters, performances by artists such as Elton John and television and radio specials.

In 2012, Gilmour and Mason decided to revisit recordings made with Wright prior to his death in 2008 to create a new Pink Floyd album. Gilmour said: "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." Only a small part from The Big Spliff was used.

Gilmour asked guitarist and producer Phil Manzanera, who played on and co-produced On an Island, to work on the material. Manzanera, Jackson and engineer Damon Iddins spent six weeks assembling four 14-minute pieces. Gilmour gave the first two of these 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. Backing vocalists including Durga McBroom recorded parts and Gilmour recorded lead vocals on "Louder than Words", with lyrics written by Gilmour's wife Polly Samson. "Autumn '68" features a recording of Wright playing the Royal Albert Hall's pipe organ in 1968. The track also has additional keyboards, added more recently by Damon Iddins. Mason stated that unreleased sessions Wright recorded for Gilmour's solo projects could appear on Gilmour's future solo albums. The Endless River is the first Pink Floyd studio album since The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) for which Mason receives writing credits (for "Sum" and "Skins").


Bassist and songwriter Roger Waters, who left Pink Floyd in 1985, was not involved in the recording. Gilmour stated that he was "pretty certain" that The Endless River would be the final Pink Floyd album.