English progressive rock group Pink Floyd will release a new album titled The Endless River in 2014, according to sources close to the band. Yet, the album won’t feature founding member and long-time bassist Roger Waters, and won’t be followed by a tour.
Polly Samson, the wife of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, leaked news of a new album on Twitter only days ago, saying, “[By the way] Pink Floyd album out in October is called The Endless River. Based on 1994 sessions is Rick Wright’s swan song and very beautiful.”
According to Billboard, Floyd’s long-time engineer Andy Jackson also confirmed the album’s existence via fan site Floydian Slip. One of the band’s touring vocalists, Durga McBroom-Hudson, also took to Facebook to say, “YES. THERE IS A NEW PINK FLOYD ALBUM COMING OUT. AND I’M ON IT. And there was much rejoicing.”
“It was originally to be a completely instrumental recording,” McBroom-Hudson said. “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.”
The Endless River reportedly features previously unreleased music dating back to 1994, taken from sessions with David Gilmour, Nick Mason and the late Richard Wright. A source close to the band has now told UK newspaper The Sun (via Brain-Damage) that Roger Waters does not feature on the album. Waters left the band after the 1983 release of The Final Cut, and has not contributed to the new record.
A spokesman for Pink Floyd told The Sun that the band don’t plan to tour following the release of The Endless River. The tabloid’s sources have also said that Gilmour and Mason have been working hard on the album over the past six months. The new material currently resides in a vault in London’s Abbey Road Studios, and has “been a joy for [them] to rediscover”.
