The final 23-minute piece would eventually take up the entire second side of the album. Unlike Atom Heart Mother the new multi-track capabilities of the studio enabled them to create the track in stages, rather than performing it in a single take. Combined with David Gilmour's guitar, the band were able to develop the track further, experimenting with accidental sound effects (such as Gilmour's guitar being plugged into a wah-wah pedal back to front). The band tried repeatedly to recreate this sound in the studio but were unsuccessful, and so the demo version was used on what would later become " Echoes", mixed almost exclusively at Air Studios. Wright had fed a single note through a Leslie speaker, producing a submarine-like ping. One of these early works involved the use of Richard Wright's piano. įollowing these early experiments-called "Nothings"-the band developed "Son of Nothings", which was followed by "Return of the Son of Nothings"-the working title of the new album. They also spent several days at Air Studios, attempting to create music using a variety of household objects, a project which would be revisited between their next albums, The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. There was no record company contact whatsoever, except when their label manager would show up now and again with a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of joints." The band would apparently spend long periods of time working on simple sounds, or a particular guitar riff. Pink Floyd's sessions would often begin in the afternoon, and end early the next morning, ".during which time nothing would get done. John Leckie had worked on albums such as George Harrison's All Things Must Pass and Ringo Starr's Sentimental Journey, and was employed as a tape-operator on Meddle, partly for his proclivity for working into the early hours of the morning. Each recorded section was named, but the process was largely unproductive after several weeks no complete songs had been created. The tempo was entirely random while the band played around an agreed chord structure, and moods such as 'first two minutes romantic, next two up tempo'. One exercise involved each member playing on a separate track, with no reference to what the other members were doing. Lacking a central theme for the project, the band used several experimental methods in an attempt to spur the creative process. Engineers John Leckie and Peter Bown recorded the main Abbey Road and AIR sessions, while for minor work at Morgan studios in West Hampstead Rob Black and Roger Quested handled the engineering duties. They transferred their best efforts, including the opening of "Echoes", to 16-track tape at smaller studios in London (namely AIR, and Morgan in West Hampstead) and resumed work with the advantage of more flexible recording equipment.
At the time, Abbey Road was equipped only with eight-track multitrack recording facilities, which Pink Floyd found insufficient for the increasing technical demands of their project.
#Pink floyd meddle series#
Returning from a series of tours of Atom Heart Mother across America and England, at the start of 1971 the band started work on new material at Abbey Road. However, despite being commercially successful in the United Kingdom, lacklustre publicity on the part of their United States-based label led to poor sales there. The album was well received by music critics upon its release. The cover, incorporating a close-up shot of an ear underwater was, as with several previous albums, designed by Hipgnosis, though Storm Thorgerson was unhappy with the final result. Although many of the group's later albums would be unified by a central theme with lyrics written mainly by Roger Waters, Meddlewas a group effort with lyrical contributions from each member. With no material to work with and no clear idea of the album's direction, the band devised a series of novel experiments which eventually inspired the album's signature track, " Echoes". The album was recorded at a series of locations around London, including Abbey Road Studios and Morgan Studios. It was produced between the band's touring commitments, from January to August 1971. Meddle is the sixth studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd, released on 30 October 1971 by Harvest Records.