The Makings of an Album
In August 2012, David Gilmour got back in touch with Phil Manzanera, who, having co-composed “One Slip” on A Momentary Lapse of Reason, had subsequently co-produced his solo album On an Island (2006). The guitarist asked him to come and meet him at the Astoria, where he had also summoned Andy Jackson and Damon Iddins, who had been Gilmour’s sound engineer since On an Island. The idea was to get the tapes out and see what could be done with them. Phil Manzanera recalls: “That was when I heard that Andy had put together a thing called The Big Spliff, which rather annoyingly I said, ‘I don’t wanna hear. I wanna hear every single piece or scrap that was recorded, everything. Outtakes from Division Bell. Everything.’ So we commenced on a 20-hour epic listening session over six weeks.”167
Manzanera made a meticulous note of what interested him in these twenty hours of music, which had been recorded on a range of media (DAT, twenty-four-track, even simple half-inch tape) and carefully archived. Before long he came up with a concept that would eventually become a symphony in four movements. “The door clanks, and you can hear them walking on the gravel towards the boat, the three of them, our heroes, they come onto Astoria and start jamming,” explains Manzanera. “That’s the first section. The second section, the boat takes off and we’re in outer space. They arrive on a planet that is all acoustic [the third movement]. Then there’s this end bit, where it goes back. So I had this narrative and I started putting all the things together.”167
Phil Manzanera then spent several weeks assiduously re-creating the music, modifying the tonality of this part, changing the intro or finale of that part, adding a solo guitar here or there. In December, he played to David Gilmour and Nick Mason, who liked what he had done and, crucially, agreed that this material had the makings of an album.
Several months passed before any more progress was made. This was mainly because David Gilmour had started work on what was to become his solo album Rattle That Lock (2015). Some of the tapes were then sent to Youth. Properly known as Martin Glover, Youth was a member of the Pink Floyd circle who had invited Gilmour and Wright to take part in the sessions for Naked (1990) by Blue Pearl (the name of the house music duo he had founded with the American singer and Pink Floyd backing vocalist Durga McBroom) and who had also worked with Gilmour on Metallic Spheres (2010) by the Orb. Youth is also known as a member of the Fireman (a duo with Paul McCartney) and Killing Joke, and as the producer of a number of highly successful albums such as Urban Hymns (1997) by the Verve. He remembers receiving a call from David Gilmour in June 2013: “He said, ‘I’ve got this thing I’ve been working on, it’s not quite been working out. Could you come down and have a listen?’ So I jumped on the train, he picked me up and we drove to his farm in Sussex. David’s got this amazing studio at the top of a barn. He put on this track up there. I was expecting to hear solo material. Within about 40 seconds, it sounded like Floyd. It was absolutely magical. The window was open and there were birds singing. June in England is the most beautiful place in the world you could be, listening to unreleased Pink Floyd recordings with David […].”167
A Tribute to Rick Wright
Intended as a tribute to Rick Wright, this Pink Floyd symphony reworked by Phil Manzanera, Andy Jackson, and Youth comprises eighteen titles organized into four movements, each of which has its own specific mood. Half the pieces are short (less than two minutes), while only two, “It’s What We Do” and “Louder Than Words,” exceed six minutes. Another unusual aspect is that with the exception of the last track, “Louder Than Words,” which is sung by David Gilmour, all the compositions are instrumentals. The overall result sounds a little like the better albums by Brian Eno, that master of ambient music, with the unique Pink Floyd atmosphere that was present from A Saucerful of Secrets via Meddle to Wish You Were Here, magnified by Gilmour’s forever luminous guitar and Wright’s greatly missed cosmic keyboards. In a sense, The Endless River sounds like a kind of retrospective of a long career that has been in a class of its own. “A requiem through familiar echoes,” David Fricke would write in the Rolling Stone of November 7, 2014. Production duties were shared among David Gilmour, Phil Manzanera, Youth, and Andy Jackson. For the first time since The Wall, Bob Ezrin receives no production credit other than for the recordings that derive from the 1993 Division Bell sessions.
What was to be the very last original Pink Floyd album was released on November 10, 2014. Regarded as the final will and testament of one of the major groups in the history of rock music, it shot to the top of the charts in many countries including the United Kingdom (where it became the group’s sixth number 1!), New Zealand, Canada, France (where it went on to achieve double platinum status), the Netherlands, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries. In the United States it climbed to number 3 and was eventually certified Gold. However, with the exception of Record Collector, which awarded the album five stars, the critics would exhibit less enthusiasm. From the moment of the album’s release, journalists were on the lookout for a reaction from Roger Waters. But the former Pink Floyd bassist seemed to be taking a softer approach and refrained from taking any potshots at his former bandmates: “I left Pink Floyd in 1985, that’s 29 years ago. I had nothing to do with either of the Pink Floyd studio albums, Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell nor the Pink Floyd tours of 1987 and 1994, and I have nothing to do with Endless River. Phew! This is not rocket science people, get a grip,”168 he would declare with evident annoyance in 2014.
We therefore have to resign ourselves to The Endless River being the very last album by this group that made such an indelible impression on the history of rock music, a group that belongs in that rare category of bands that created their own, immediately identifiable world, a group that forged the way for progressive rock. But there it is, reality is not as cosmic as the albums of this group whose future was sealed by David Gilmour, the only person with the power to enable it to continue. But neither did Nick Mason seem capable of reconciling himself to the thought that it might all be over, revealing to Rolling Stone: “I think I’ll let David do the, ‘This is the last, this is the end.’ I now believe when I’m dead and buried my tombstone will read, ‘I’m not entirely sure the band’s over.’”169
The Sleeve
While the spirit of Rick Wright presided over the development of the music for The Endless River, that of Storm Thorgerson (who is mentioned in the credits even though he passed away in April 2013) is present in the choice of illustration for the sleeve of Pink Floyd’s last album. Entitled Sky, this is the work of the self-taught eighteen-year-old Egyptian artist Ahmed Emad Eldin and depicts (from behind) a man rowing into the sunset on a sea of clouds. Aubrey Powell, Storm Thorgerson’s long-standing partner at Hipgnosis, has revealed that he came across the work of Ahmed Emad Eldin on the online portfolio site Behance, and chose this image for its particular atmosphere, which is in complete harmony with the music of The Endless River. For its creator, the illustration symbolizes “the intersection of life, nature, and what is beyond the world,”159 in a sense an expression of new limits or frontiers. Neither the name of the group nor the title of the album is printed on Pink Floyd’s final album.
The Recording
Most of the tracks on The Endless River were recorded during the sessions for The Division Bell in 1993, which took place in David Gilmour’s houseboat studio, the Astoria. There are two exceptions: “Autumn ’68,” which dates back to June 1969 (at any rate Rick Wright’s performance on the Grand Organ of the Royal Albert Hall does) and “Louder Than Words,” which dates from the beginning of 2014. Following Phil Manzanera’s initial selection of pieces and their organization into four sections, in November 2013 the tapes were then enhanced in David Gilmour’s studio at his farm in Sussex, Medina Studio, this time under the supervision of the producer Youth. This was the first time in twenty years that Gilmour and Mason had found themselves together in the studio working on a Pink Floyd album. The initial takes involved Mason. “Nick was just great,
straight away,” recalls Manzanera. “It sounded like what Robert Wyatt calls ‘Pink Floyd time.’ It was just magic.”167
The drum and guitar overdubs were worked on in Hove in the three days from November 11 to 13 and then the following week. Back at the Astoria, the two members of Pink Floyd and their team then listened to the tapes from November 20. With Wright’s keyboards serving as a kind of spinal column, the decision was then taken to add new tracks that were to be recorded at the beginning of 2014. “It became an interactive process of mixing and recording,” explains Andy Jackson. “You put drums on this, flesh this bit out, this bit needs a guitar solo. Then you assimilate that, do a layer of mixing to make it sound like a record and then go, ‘Great, but this has now revealed that we need this… ’”167 “Louder Than Words” was recorded successively at Medina Studio and on the Astoria.
Before arriving at the final results, however, the team was forced to take account of changes in technology over the intervening twenty years. As David Gilmour would later comment, the Floyd owed it to themselves to endow the recordings dating from 1993 with a sound worthy of the twenty-first century. In order to achieve this, all the tracks were worked on in the benchmark digital audio workstation Pro Tools (Avid Technology). Given the coexistence of tracks from the 1993 sessions and the new overdubs dating from 2014, the complexity of the task would rapidly increase, as Andy Jackson explains: “What happened with this album is quite interesting, as there were huge sessions in Pro Tools […] we were constantly running out of voices [i.e., room for extra tracks], and it was really hard.”170 This situation would lead them to search for alternative solutions that would enable them to complete the recordings: “There would be times where David and I would be sitting there scratching our heads, going: ‘We need to find five voices. Where are we going to find five voices?’ You’d find five voices, and then 3 days later, we’d need another six.”170 As for the mixing, the sound engineer proceeded with an “in the box” mix, in other words in Pro Tools. However, David Gilmour also asked him to try an analog mix, using the Neve 88R console. With the new mix complete, they then organized a “blind test” of the two versions: “And it was just like chalk and cheese,” reports Jackson, “It was a huge difference with the analog.”170
As we have seen, responsibility for recording the latest (and indeed last) Pink Floyd album went to Andy Jackson. He was assisted by Damon Iddins, who, in addition to his collaborations with Muse, Blur, Björk, and Humble Pie—to mention just a few—also plays keyboards on this album. Moreover, some of the tracks that served as a basis for The Endless River, specifically those dating from 1993 and Britannia Row Studios, had been recorded by Phil Taylor.
Technical Details
The Astoria was now equipped with a superb forty-eight-track Neve 88R console, two Studer A827 tape recorders, a twenty-four-track Otari MTR-100, and a Quantum Scalar i80 storage system. Andy Jackson has pointed out that he did not use any digital reverb whatsoever, but instead relied on two EMT plates. As we have seen, the digital audio workstation was the famous Pro Tools from Avid Technology, probably one of the most widely used workstations in the world.
The Instruments
With Pink Floyd’s final album, it is very difficult to identify the instruments played by each of the members of the group. As the base tracks were laid down during the 1993 sessions devoted to The Division Bell, the keyboard, guitar, and some of the drum parts were inevitably played on the instruments used in the recording of that album (see here). However, when the group got down to updating the various tracks in 2013–14, other than in the case of Rick Wright’s parts it is difficult to isolate the new overdubs recorded and mixed alongside the Division Bell base tracks. Nevertheless, it is possible to securely identify a few of the new instruments used. David Gilmour is once again playing his “Black Strat,” which he had reclaimed ten years after loaning it to the Hard Rock Cafe at the end of 1986 (it had deteriorated seriously during that time). He also uses a Fender Telecaster Baritone that had been specially made for him under the supervision of Phil Taylor, a 1950 Gretsch Duo Jet fitted with a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece, and a Fender Deluxe lap steel.
As for the drums, Nick Mason rerecorded most of his 1993 parts: “When you revisit something you always think you can do something better or different. […] If you get the opportunity to revisit something, you do it.”169 He also brings out his Rototoms, his chimes, and his gong.
The Musicians
The musicians lending a hand to the three members of Pink Floyd on this album were drawn from a number of circles. Some were close associates of the group, such as Bob Ezrin and Andy Jackson, who play bass on several tracks, as does the excellent Guy Pratt. Jon Carin, on keyboards, is once again a part of the team, while Anthony Moore, a lyricist on the two previous albums, makes his keyboard debut on this album. Durga McBroom makes another appearance on backing vocals, while Louise Marshall and Sarah Brown contribute in this role for the first time. Also making their debut on a Pink Floyd album is the electronic string quartet Escala, consisting of Helen Nash, Honor Watson, Victoria Lyon, and Chantal Leverton. Finally, Gilad Atzmon makes a wonderful contribution on tenor sax and clarinet.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
Syd Barrett, who died in 2006, Rick Wright, who died in 2008, and Storm Thorgerson, who passed away in 2013, were all predeceased by Steve O’Rourke, who departed this world on October 30, 2003.
The deluxe version of Endless River includes a number of bonus tracks: “TBS9,” “TBS14,” and “Nervana,” as well as videos of “Anisina,” “Untitled,” “Evrika (A),” “Nervana,” “Allons-y,” and “Evrika (B).”
For Pink Floyd Addicts
Another demonstration of how keenly this album was awaited by the British public is that The Endless River broke all the records for preorders on Amazon UK.
Things Left Unsaid
David Gilmour, Richard Wright/4:26
Musicians
David Gilmour: acoustic guitar (EBow), guitars
Rick Wright: Hammond organ, synthesizers, keyboards
Bob Ezrin: additional keyboards
Recorded
Britannia Row Studios, Islington, London: January 1993
Medina Studio, Hove: November 2013
Astoria, Hampton: 2013–14
Olympic Studios, London: 2013–14
Technical Team
Producers (1993): Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour
Producers: David Gilmour, Phil Manzanera, Youth, Andy Jackson
Sound Engineers: Andy Jackson, Damon Iddins, Phil Taylor (Britannia Row)
Genesis
We certainly have an unspoken understanding. But a lot of things unsaid as well, says Rick Wright; Ah, well we shout and argue and fight, adds David Gilmour, and work it on out; The sum is greater than the parts, concludes Nick Mason. The long musical journey along the Endless River is introduced by these few words spoken by each of the three members of Pink Floyd in turn. Are they evoking the group’s past? Are these phrases intended as an affirmation by Gilmour and Mason of their friendship for Wright, who died in 2008? What is beyond doubt is that “Things Left Unsaid” sends the listeners back a few decades, to the floating, soaring music of Wish You Were Here, which, as well as being a tribute to Syd Barrett, happens to have been the keyboard player’s favorite album. This musical mood is ushered in by the Hammond organ and David Gilmour’s use of the EBow on his acoustic guitar.
Production
As the first piece on the album, “Things Left Unsaid” also opens the first of the four parts of The Endless River. The track takes the form of a highly ethereal instrumental that begins with a synth pad and synth sounds that gradually increase in volume. These sounds probably derive from the Kurzweil K2000 recorded in 1993 (alongside other keyboards). Rick Wright’s voice emerges suddenly at 0:13. The last word of his phrase is subject to a highly emphatic echo with infinite repeats. Gilmour’s voice is heard next, at 0:34. Then it is Nick Mason’s turn to speak (0:45), his voice drenched in a kind
of pre-reverb before growing more distinct. The end of his phrase is punctuated by a percussion instrument with abundant reverb. The cosmic vibe develops through numerous synth sounds, reversed guitar, and Hammond organ, before Gilmour eventually comes in on acoustic guitar (his Gibson J-200?) played with an EBow as in “Take It Back” and “Keep Talking” on The Division Bell. Instead of creating a loop that is then played backward, as in these earlier tracks, he plays a highly melodic solo, allowing his strings to vibrate freely under the influence of the EBow, the sound drawn out further by very present delay. The instrumental ends with the sound of Rick Wright’s Hammond B-3 played through his Leslie speaker.
Pink Floyd All the Songs Page 76
