David Gilmour, who has often given off the appearance of being happily retired, hasn’t been keeping himself from the studio after all. The ex-Pink Floyd singer-guitarist has announced his first album in nine years, “Luck and Strange,” and he’s giving everyone time to prepare for it, with the release not coming till Sept. 6.
The first teaser track is imminent, however, with “The Piper’s Call” due to come out on DSPs on Thursday, to be followed by a music video on Friday. He also released a short teaser on YouTube featuring himself and his dog in the studio during the mixing process.
Gilmour’s fifth solo album will include nine tracks in all, eight of them originals and the ninth being a cover of the Montgolfier Brothers’ “Between Two Points.” Musicians include bassists Guy Pratt and Tom Herbert; drummers Adam Betts, Steve Gadd and Steve DiStanislao; Rob Gentry and Roger Eno on keyboards; and Will Gardner arranging strings and choral backup. The album is reported to have been recorded in Brighton and London over a period of five months.
Predating those newer recording sessions, obviously, the late Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright is also heard from, even though he died in 2008 at age 65. The album includes a part he recorded in 2007 at a barn jam at Gilmour’s house.
Lyrics have mostly been written by Gilmour’s wife, Polly Samson, as has been the case with Gilmour’s albums for decades, and the latter-day/post-Roger Waters material that Pink Floyd did before retiring the moniker, Samson said in a statement that the songs are “written from the point of view of being older; mortality is the constant.”
Other family members also contribute, harking back to family livestreams that the Gilmour clan did during the pandemic lockdowns. Romany Gilmour sings, plays harp and sings lead vocals on “Between Two Points.” Gabriel Gilmour contributes backing vocals. Charlie Gilmour wrote lyrics for the album’s closing song, “Scattered.”
“Polly and I have been writing together for over thirty years,” he said, “and the Von Trapped live streams showed the great blend of Romany’s voice and harp-playing and that led us into a feeling of discarding some of the past that I’d felt bound to and that I could throw those rules out and do whatever I felt like doing, and that has been such a joy.”
Gilmour collaborated with a co-producer on the album, Charlie Andrew, who’s worked with ALT-J and Marika Hackman. “We invited Charlie to the house, so he came and listened to some demos,” Gilmour recalled in a statement, “and said things like, ‘Well, why does there have to be a guitar solo there?’ and ‘Do they all fade out? Can’t some of them just end?'” While Andrew questioning the need for guitar solos may not put him in the immediate good stead of all Gilmour fans, the artist says the approach of not taking any tropes for granted was refreshing. “He has a wonderful lack of knowledge or respect for this past of mine. He’s very direct and not in any way overawed, and I love that. That is just so good for me because the last thing you want is people just deferring to you.”
Famed photographer Anton Corbijn is responsible for the album imagery.
