It seems Pink Floyd (or at least the Roger Waters-free variety) have recorded a new studio album that will be released in the fall. It will be the band's first album of new material in 20 years.
Over the holiday weekend, Polly Samson, wife of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, surprised fans with a tweet stating that the band has a new record in the works. A representative for Gilmour later confirmed the news to Rolling Stone.
"BTW Pink Floyd album out in October is called The Endless River," Samson wrote. "Based on 1994 sessions is Rick Wright's swansong and very beautiful." (Keyboardist Wright died in 2008 at age 65.)
The new material appears to be connected to unreleased recordings made during the Division Bell sessions from the early Nineties. Interestingly enough, the band just celebrated the 20th anniversary of 1994's The Division Bell with an impressive reissue of the album earlier this month.
Durga McBroom-Hudson, a singer who once toured with Pink Floyd (and who seems to be involved in the new project), offered more Endless River factoids on her Facebook page:
"The recording did start during The Division Bell sessions (and yes, it was the side project originally titled 'The Big Spliff' that Nick Mason spoke about)," she explained. "Which is why there are Richard Wright tracks on it. But David and Nick have gone in and done a lot more since then. It was originally to be a completely instrumental recording, but I came in last December and sang on a few tracks. David then expanded on my backing vocals and has done a lead on at least one of them. That's the song you see being worked on in the photo."
She went on to emphasize that the new album will consist entirely of unreleased songs.
Update:
The following info comes to us from Wikipedia, where's there's already a paged dedicated to the new album:
"The Endless River is based on material originally recorded in 1994 during the sessions for The Division Bell, which took place aboard David Gilmour's houseboat recording studios, the Astoria, where Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason and David Gilmour's On an Island was partly recorded also.
"The material, described by drummer Nick Mason as ambient music, was originally conceived as an album, tentatively entitled The Big Spliff. The band seriously considered releasing it at one stage, but it was originally shelved. After the death of keyboardist Richard Wright, David Gilmour and Nick Mason went back into the studio to expand upon The Big Spliff, inviting musicians and producers into the studio to work with them on a new Pink Floyd album. The Endless River was originally intended to be an instrumental album in vein of The Big Spliff's origins as an ambient piece. Backing vocalists, however, such as Durga McBroom were invited into the studio in December 2013, and Gilmour had taken lead vocals on the album."
