How Phil Manzanera reconnected with David Gilmour, leading to Pink Floyd’s final album

Phil Manzanera says cataloguing David Gilmour’s forgotten MiniDisc recordings helped restart the Pink Floyd guitarist’s solo career and began a decade-long collaboration. The work led to Gilmour’s 2006 album *On an Island* and later contributed to *The Endless River*, Pink Floyd’s final studio album.

Manzanera and Gilmour had known each other since their early careers and first worked together on “One Slip” for 1987’s *A Momentary Lapse of Reason*. Manzanera spent six weeks selecting and assembling recordings from the *Division Bell* sessions into a four-part structure; after a delay of nearly a year, Gilmour added guitar and Nick Mason drums. Released in 2014, *The Endless River* was conceived as a tribute to keyboardist Richard Wright.