"the endless river" is based on music recorded during the sessions for pink floyd's 14th studio album, "the division bell" (1994). "the division bell" was recorded in 1993 and 1994 in britannia row studios in london and on the "astoria" boat studio belonging to guitarist david gilmour. according to keyboardist richard wright, pink floyd recorded five or six hours of unreleased music during the sessions. engineer andy jackson edited the material, described by nick mason as ambient music, to an hour-long composition tentatively titled "the big spliff", but the band did not release it. wright died of cancer on 15 september 2008 at the age of 65.