From Uncut’s November 2014 situation [Take 210]. The within story of the Floyd’s studio swansong, The Infinite River…
On a day in mid-August, Astoria – the houseboat studio owned by David Gilmour – appears deceptively quiet. Moored on the finish of a sloping backyard alongside a quiet stretch of the River Thames, Gilmour’s good-looking Edwardian vessel is often shut up through the summer season holidays. However not, it transpires, this yr. On nearer inspection, indicators of exercise turn into obvious. In a big conservatory on the prime of the riverside backyard, espresso mugs and a small frying pan are stacked in a sink prepared for laundry up, whereas a spaniel lolls on a wicker-framed couch, content material in a heat patch of daylight. In the meantime, the boat itself – almost a sufferer of the floods that hit this stretch of the Thames earlier within the yr – is open for enterprise. There are lights on within the elegant, mahogany-panelled cabins. The home windows are open out throughout the river, and a breeze gently ruffles the thick curtains within the management room itself, set again on the stern of the boat.
That is the place Pink Floyd labored on A Momentary Lapse Of Motive and The Division Bell, and the place Gilmour himself recorded his most up-to-date solo album, On An Island. Recently, nonetheless, Astoria has been the positioning of one other astonishing – and fully sudden – improvement within the exceptional lifetime of Pink Floyd. Immediately, a size of masking tape is stretched throughout the 72-channel analogue mixing console, marked in thick, black, felt-tip writing to establish every separate channel. It begins, “aspect 1”, then “instruments”, “bass”, “baritone”, “leslie gtr”, “lead gtr”, “swell melody”. It’s attainable to discern different phrases transcribed alongside the tape: “wibbly”, “twank bass”, “splangs”, “finish rhodes + ebow”, “o/h”, “amb”. It turns into obvious that these seemingly arcane signifiers are in reality tantalising proof of the achievements which have taken place right here during the last two years. Nothing much less exceptional, that’s, than the creation of The Infinite River – the primary new Pink Floyd album since 1994’s The Division Bell.
Organized throughout 4 sections (known as “4 sides”), it’s an instrumental album – with one tune “Louder Than Phrases” embedded inside Facet 4 – that largely privileges the band’s spacey, ruminative qualities. Reassuringly, the weather for which they’re finest identified – ethereal synths, acoustic passages, melodic guitar solos, exploratory digressions, sweeping organ – are all very a lot to the foreground. However critically, there’s additionally one other story right here. The Infinite River is a splendid tribute to certainly one of their fallen comrades, the band’s co-founder and keyboardist, Rick Wright, who died on September 15, 2008, aged 65. Certainly, the supply of The Infinite River lies in materials initially recorded in periods for The Division Bell by Wright, Gilmour and Nick Mason. “Once we completed the Division Bell periods,” says Gilmour, “we had many items of music, solely 9 of which had turn into songs on the LP. Now with Rick gone and with him the prospect of ever doing it once more, it feels proper these revisited tracks ought to be made out there as a part of our repertoire.”
The work right here on Astoria – and likewise at Gilmour’s studios in Hove and on his farm in West Sussex, in addition to different studios throughout London – has largely been carried out underneath a veil of secrecy. In collaboration with producers Phil Manzanera, Youth and Andy Jackson, Gilmour and Mason have edited and reshaped unused Division Bell materials and long-established new components for The Infinite River, quietly going about their enterprise undisturbed. That was, till July this yr, when the specter of a leak prompted Gilmour’s spouse, Polly Samson, to interrupt the information on Twitter of this marvellous new endeavor. “Btw Pink Floyd album out in October is known as ‘The Infinite River’,” she tweeted. “Based mostly on 1994 periods is Rick Wright’s swansong and really stunning.”
“It’s a tribute to him,” acknowledges Gilmour. “I imply, to me, it’s very evocative and emotional in quite a lot of moments. And listening to all of the stuff made me remorse his passing over again. That is the final likelihood somebody will get to listen to him taking part in together with us in that manner that he did.”
“I believe probably the most vital factor was actually listening to what Rick did,” agrees Nick Mason. “Having misplaced Rick, it actually introduced residence what a particular participant he was. And I believe that was one of many parts that caught us up in it and made us assume we should do one thing with this.”
FIND THE FULL INTERVIEW FROM UNCUT JUNE 2004/TAKE 85 IN THE ARCHIVE