EMI announced today the largest Pink Floyd remaster and rarities project in the band’s 40-plus-year history.
The label will release remastered/repackaged versions of all 14 Floyd studio albums, along with deluxe — and deluxe, deluxe! — versions including tons of previously unreleased audio, video and more.
The label’s Web site for the initiative, “Why Pink Floyd …?,” promises, “a comprehensive release schedule, to be launched on September 26, 2011, encompassing CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, SACD, an array of digital formats, viral marketing, iPhone Apps and a brand-new single-album ‘Best Of’ collection.”
A source close to the band told “Floydian Slip” in September 2010 remastering work on previously unreleased, and, in some cases, presumed to have been lost, recordings was being performed for eventual release, “subject to interminable contract negotiations.”
The project’s “Discovery” series will include individual remasters of all 14 Floyd studio albums:
- The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)
- A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)
- More (1969)
- Ummagumma (1969)
- Atom Heart Mother (1970)
- Meddle (1971)
- Obscured by Clouds (1972)
- The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
- Wish You Were Here (1975)
- Animals (1977)
- The Wall (1979)
- The Final Cut (1983)
- A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)
- The Division Bell (1994)
… as well as “The Discovery Collection,” a box set containing all of them.
All have been remastered by James Guthrie, and come in newly-designed Digipaks with 12-page booklets designed by Storm Thorgerson.
“Experience” editions — coming for:
- The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
- Wish You Were Here (1975)
- The Wall (1979)
… are expanded versions in Digipak bonus disc format. Included are original remastered albums, discs of additional material and expanded CD booklets.
EMI will also release “Immersion” editions of:
- The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
- Wish You Were Here (1975)
- The Wall (1979)
Packaged in square boxes, the sets contain remastered, previously unreleased and audio-visual material, plus additional content such as reproduced memorabilia, new graphics, art prints, collectors’ items, booklets and more.
Also included in this project is “A Foot in the Door,” a new 14-track sampler of previously released material, also remastered by Guthrie; and vinyl editions of much of the back catalog.
Rarities
The most exciting material, without a doubt, are the previously unreleased tracks contained in the “Experience” and “Immersion” sets.
The 6-CD “Dark Side” immersion set includes concert film screens in Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound; early, live versions of “Dark Side” songs; demos of “Us and Them” and “Money”; documentary videos; “The Hard Way,” a cut from the band’s aborted “Household Objects” project, when it flirted with recording an entire album substituting everyday objects for instruments; and more.
The 5-CD “Wish You Were Here” immersion set includes live material from November 1974’s Wembley shows; “Wine Glasses” from “Household Objects”; an alternate take of “Have a Cigar”; and a version of the title track featuring Stephane Grappelli; and much more.
“The Wall” immersion set includes seven CDs, which contain a live version of the album; documentaries; interviews; and more.
