Magna Qualitas Records have updated their brilliant 2014 work 'Forever and Ever'. Due to the 2019 release of additional outtakes from the 'Division Bell' sessions and }{eywood's acquisition of the 'Colours Of Infinity' DVD bonus tracks, they felt it was time to expand some of the suites on this album and update it. Here are their notes on the update:
'Forever and Ever', a mashup of 'The Division Bell' and 'The Endless River - Rev A' was designed to make 'The Division Bell' less radio-friendly and 'The Endless River' less...well...cobbled together. It is intended as a true final Pink Floyd record, an alternate reality version of what should have been released in 1994. When we first listened to 'The Endless River' we were sadly disappointed by the lack of any sort of actual songs on the record. Other that 'Louder Than Words', there was nothing with a traditional song structure to it or lyrics on the record. We heard many pieces of things we had heard before, either on bootlegs or on the 'Colours Of Infinity' soundtrack, even pieces of the soundscape used as an opening act on the 1994 tour and later released on the P*U*L*S*E cassettes. Being mostly recorded in tandem with 'The Division Bell' it also contained a lot of similar or duplicated sounds compared to what's on that album.
We see 'The Division Bell' as one of Pink Floyd's better efforts, the first record to sound like a band (rather than a solo album) since 'Animals'. It was, however, a bit heavy on the pop songs. Both albums are flawed, but after just one listen }{eywood had about 22.6 ideas that led to one big design concept: if the two were combined to form a single long album they might balance each other. So he spent a couple of days investigating the issue, and this is what he came up with. Using a couple of bootlegs, the 'Endless River' tracks from the album proper with the bluray and bonus disc extras, the 'Colour Of Infinity' isolated soundtrack, a bit of the PULSE soundscape and, of course, 'The Division Bell', he edited, resequenced and crossfaded the tracks into a new album, one that still has "songs" but is also far more floyd-y sounding, with spacey sections and a great deal of instrumental tracks, sort of like how they used to make records before Roger Waters took over the group and made it more about lyrics (and lists. Don't forget the lists) and less about music. There were several more pieces of music available on bootlegs that were not used for 'The Endless River', but the sound quality wasn't up to the standard set by these albums, and many were incomplete fragments anyway. In case some diehards out there are wondering, we also originally intended to throw some of 'La Carerra Panamericana' in there too, but it's too hard to remove all the documentary sounds and dialogue to reveal the music. Also, it was released in 1992, a year before the TDB sessions began, and therefore doesn't technically belong with this material.
The recent discovery of the four isolated songs on a certain version of 'The Colours Of infinity' DVD bonus features was a gift for }{eywood, who wanted to include this music from the start, but like 'La Carerra Panamericana', couldn't separate it from the dialogue.
Flash forward to 2019 and the release of 7 songs on 'The Later Years' box set that were not used for 'The Endless River'; these songs were instantly destined to be sequenced into 'Forever and Ever'. As expected, these included most of the 'Colours' soundtrack in pristine quality. The work began anew the day after 'The Later Years' release. Our original intent when making this the first time around was not to alter the running order of TDB, just add to it, but once the whole project was assembled we decided it was better for the overall flow of the record to move the pieces around. Influenced by the four album sides approach taken by 'The Endless River', we put together six suites of varying lengths, each separated from the others. Why didn't we use all the bonus material from TER and all the other known pieces of music like the 'Surfacing Full Demo'? 'Nervana' has no ending, just an abrupt fade out, and it really doesn't fit here because it sounds like Black Sabbath. 'TBS14' has a really bad drum sound, just a mic open in a room near drums, and it's not produced to be used for an album. It also had no true ending. The other songs are just alternate/early mixes of the stuff on the albums, or they are of dubious quality. We did, however, use parts of 'Evrika (A)' to add some additional lead guitar to the end of 'Wearing The Inside Out'. This is essentially every song/jam available in RELEASABLE quality. Many songs have obviously had alterations, intended to facilitate better segues:
The intro to Cluster One has been extended by using the crackling earth noise and some voices from opposite ends of the PULSE soundscape.
Allons-y has been extended by splicing in the first verse (without the 2014 overdubs) and the middle 8 (unused on the album version) from 209, a bootleg that Lordsnooty circulated around the time Pink Floyd began work on 'The Endless River'.
"Autumn 68" has been renamed "Spring '69" because our research shows that is the correct date when Rick recorded himself playing the RAH organ.
Poles Apart has had the anomalous middle "carnival" section removed and Surfacing inserted in it's place. This is certainly the original middle section, sped up for use on 'The Endless River' so the fans don't notice the similarity (we did anyway). We slowed it back down and put it back in it's proper place.
David's Blues has been added to the start of the (previously too short) 3rd suite. The scat vocal sections of this have been cut as they are reference vocals of a vocal melody and show the otherwise decent recording to be a demo. Removing the vocal verses un-demos it.
The Day Has Come, the 'One Of These Days' sounding jam from TCoI has been inserted before Wearing the Inside Out.
Wearing The Inside Out, as mentioned above, has additional lead guitar in the middle 8 and at the end, also taken from 'Evrika (A)'. The cymbal swell that cues it in is from 'Evrika (B)'
The final note of Night Light was reduced to just bass frequencies, stretched, and used to add low end to the first minute of Keep Talking.
Stephen Hawking dialogue was added to Looking Forward (one of the unnamed pieces on TCoI) to connect it thematically with the songs around it.
The sounds at the end of Talkin' Hawkin' were moved from the end of the song to the beginning.
Slippery Guitar, a piece from TCoI that I named Back to Basics, and Rick's Theme were added to the start of Suite 4.
A nature sounds montage extracted from the PULSE soundscape was laid into the segue between Rick's Theme and Take It Back in line with the theme of the following song.
The extended ending for Take It Back from the 12" single was used to make a bridge into Sum.
First In Space is a track we created out of parts of the PULSE soundscape and named after the "still first in space" slogan used on 'The Division Bell' Tour shirts. We included this because small fragments of it were used throughout The Endless River, noticeably at the start of the track Sum, but on Sum the keyboards that appear after the soundscape are from the end of Take It Back. We therefore joined Take It Back and Sum using those keys, leaving the soundscape portion of the track with an uncertain destiny. We then extended it and used it elsewhere.
Carnival Relations is the middle section that was removed from Poles Apart, given a new home...and a new pitch.
The Colour Of Infinity is the blues jam from TCoI, named as such because (obviously) the color of infinity is blue(s).
A bonus band quote has been added to Things Left Unsaid, this time by Roger Waters (we reunited the band virtually for their final record).
It's What We Do has been removed from in between Things Left Unsaid and Ebb & Flow and placed elsewhere.
TBS9 has had some extraneous drum sounds removed to clean up the start a bit, and a couple of small edits to remove sloppy playing. Although not a properly produced recording, it was recorded well enough that it could be used for this album with a few little fixes.
Blues 1 was re-edited and rearranged and added to suite 6. It was an unfinished wandering jam. We kept the guitar solo verse.
And finally, the end of High Hopes fades into the crackling earth noise again as it fades out, giving the endless-loop wraparound that all the best Floyd albums have. There's also a surprise if you crank it up.
Although we weren't trying to remix the songs, we did have to address Louder Than Words. The vocals were too loud in this song, and conspicuously lacking in reverb. This made it stand out from the rest of the vocal tracks. Using phase manipulation we separated the vocals in the verses from the rest of the mix and added some effects, then put them back.
Influenced by the way 'The Endless River' is broken into four album sides, this is made up of six suites. Each is separate from the others with the pieces making up each being interconnected. It's sort of like 6 album sides, although not as short as the ones on 'The Endless River'.
By the way, we've taken great pains to keep Wearing The Inside Out as the centerpiece of the album. It still ends the first half just like TDB and our previous version of this album. So roll up The Big Spliff and check out what we've done to improve our already amazing upgrade of Pink Floyd's final studio album.
Suite One:
Cluster One
Allons-y 1
Spring '69
Allons-y 2
What Do You Want From Me?
Unsung
Anisina
Poles Apart / Surfacing
Suite Two:
The Lost Art Of Conversation
On Noodle Street
Night Light
Keep Talking
Looking Forward
Talkin' Hawkin'
Lost For Words
Suite Three:
David's Blues
Calling
Eyes To Pearls
The Day Has Come
Wearing The Inside Out
Suite Four:
Slippery
Slush
Rick's Theme
Take It Back
Sum
Skins
Coming Back To Life
Suite Five:
First In Space
Carnival Relations
The Colour Of Infinity
Louder Than Words
Things Left Unsaid
Ebb & Flow
A Great Day For Freedom
Suite Six:
TBS9
Blues 1
It's What We Do
Marooned
High Hopes
