David Gilmour today announced his new album “Luck And Strange”, to be released on September 6 via Sony Music. The first track from the album, “The Piper’s Call”, will be released this Thursday, April 25, following a world exclusive first play on the BBC Radio 2 “Breakfast Show”.
“Luck And Strange” was recorded over five months in Brighton and London and is Gilmour‘s first album of new material in nine years. The record was produced by David and Charlie Andrew, best known for his work with ALT-J and Marika Hackman. Of this new working relationship, David says: “We invited Charlie to the house, so he came and listened to some demos, 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?’ 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.”
The majority of the album’s lyrics have been composed by Polly Samson, Gilmour‘s co-writer and collaborator for the past thirty years. Samson says of the lyrical themes covered on “Luck And Strange”: “It’s written from the point of view of being older; mortality is the constant.” Gilmour elaborates: “We spent a load of time during and after lockdown talking about and thinking about those kind of things.” Polly has also found the experience of working with Charlie Andrew liberating: “He wants to know what the songs are about, he wants everyone who’s playing on them to have the ideas that are in the lyric informing their playing. I have particularly loved it for that reason.”
The album features eight new tracks along with a beautiful reworking of THE MONTGOLFIER BROTHERS‘ “Between Two Points” and has artwork and photography by the renowned artist Anton Corbijn.
Musicians contributing to the record include Guy Pratt and Tom Herbert on bass, Adam Betts, Steve Gadd and Steve DiStanislao on drums, Rob Gentry and Roger Eno on keyboards with string and choral arrangements by Will Gardner. The title track also features the late PINK FLOYD keyboard player Richard Wright, recorded in 2007 at a jam in a barn at David‘s house.
Some contributions emerged from the live streams that Gilmour and family performed to a global audience during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021; Romany Gilmour sings, plays the harp and appears on lead vocals on “Between Two Points”. Gabriel Gilmour also sings backing vocals.
The album’s cover image, photographed and designed by Anton Corbijn, is inspired by a lyric written by Charlie Gilmour for the album’s final song “Scattered”.
Of working with his family on “Luck And Strange”, David says: “Polly and I have been writing together for over thirty years 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 is guitarist, vocalist and writer with PINK FLOYD, but is also renowned for his solo work. Gilmour and Roger “Syd” Barrett met as children in Cambridge, U.K., and later began playing guitar together. In 1965 Syd co-founded PINK FLOYD, while David continued playing with a succession of his own bands. In 1968, David was asked to augment the PINK FLOYD lineup as the singer and guitarist, only for Syd to leave the group five gigs later. David‘s guitar playing, singing and songwriting became major factors of PINK FLOYD‘s worldwide success, including his distinctive vocals and guitar playing on “The Dark Side Of The Moon”, the third most successful album of all time.
In 1978, David released his first solo album, “David Gilmour”, which charted in the U.K. and the U.S. His second solo album, “About Face”, was released in 1984, again hitting the Top 20 in the U.K.
David assumed control of PINK FLOYD in 1985, creating the new FLOYD album “A Momentary Lapse Of Reason” with Richard Wright and Nick Mason. It was followed in 1994 by “The Division Bell”, which contained the instrumental “Marooned”, composed by David and Richard Wright, which won a Grammy Award. Both albums charted at No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic and were supported by sell-out world tours.
In 1996, PINK FLOYD were inducted into the U.S. Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, followed by the same honor in the U.K. in November 2005.
David is one of the all-time guitar greats, with an instinctive and distinctive sound; he was voted “Best Fender Guitar Player Ever” in a poll in Guitarist magazine, beating such greats as Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. In 2005, David was made a CBE for services to music.
On March 6, 2006, David released his third solo album, “On An Island”, which entered the U.K. chart at No. 1, subsequently hitting the top position in the pan-European Charts, as well as hitting multi-platinum around the world. The tour for the album included a one-off performance in the historic dockyards of Gdańsk, Poland, with a 40-piece orchestra and a show at London’s Royal Albert Hall was filmed by director David Mallet and released in 2007 as “Remember That Night – Live At The Royal Albert Hall”, which topped the charts upon release.
In May 2008, David was awarded an “Ivor” for Lifetime Achievement by the British Association of Composers and Songwriters. In September 2008, Fender Guitars made available their David Gilmour Signature Black Strat model, in “Relic” and “New Old Stock” models.
In 2009, David was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from East Anglia’s Ruskin University of Cambridge and Chelmsford for his outstanding contribution to music as a writer, performer and innovator.
In September 2014, PINK FLOYD released “The Endless River”, and David confirmed that it would be the band’s final album and it topped the charts in over 20 countries.
David‘s next album “Rattle That Lock” was released in 2015 and went to No. 1 in 13 charts around the world and No. 2 in a further eight, hitting the Top 5 in a total of 25 listings. The accompanying world tour saw David perform two spectacular shows at the legendary Pompeii Amphitheatre in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, 45 years after he first played there for Adrian Maben‘s classic film “Pink Floyd Live At Pompeii”.
The concerts were the first-ever rock performances played to an audience in the ancient Roman amphitheatre, which was built in 90 BC and entombed in ash when Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. The film of these shows directed by Gavin Elder, topped the box office In Italy, Germany and France and was No. 2 in the U.K. “David Gilmour Live At Pompeii” was released on Blu-ray, vinyl, CD and DVD in September 2017 and reached No. 3 in the U.K. and No. 1 in Italy.
In June 2019, David raised $21.5 million from the Christie’s sale of more than 120 of his instruments and artefacts. He gave the proceeds to ClientEarth, a charity which uses the power of the law to protect the planet and its people.
Gilmour and Nick Mason reactivated PINK FLOYD to record “Hey Hey Rise Up” on March 30, 2022 with Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the Ukrainian band BOOMBOX. All of the net proceeds have gone to charities to help alleviate the suffering of Ukrainian people.