gilmour asked guitarist and producer phil manzanera, who played on and co-produced his 2006 solo album "on an island", to work on the material. manzanera, jackson and engineer damon iddins spent six weeks assembling four 14-minute pieces. gilmour gave two pieces to producer youth, who added guitar and bass parts. in november 2013, gilmour led sessions with manzanera, youth and jackson to record material with mason, saxophonist gilad atzmon and bassist guy pratt. backing vocalists including durga mcbroom recorded parts and gilmour recorded lead vocals on "louder than words", with lyrics by his wife, author polly samson. bassist and songwriter roger waters, who left pink floyd in 1985, was not involved.