Pink Floyd release a restored “Echoes” video from the surf film “Crystal Voyager”

Pink Floyd have released a restored, high-resolution version of the footage that accompanies “Echoes”, the 23-minute track from their 1971 album “Meddle”. The images come from “Crystal Voyager”, a 1973 Australian surf documentary that has become a cult film, according to OndaRock.

The release coincides with a reissue of “Meddle”, back in shops on 17 October on “San Tropez Orange Marble” coloured vinyl, distributed by Sony Music for National Album Day.

“Crystal Voyager”, directed by David Elfick, followed surfer, photographer and filmmaker George Greenough, who also wrote and narrated it. Greenough shot from inside the waves with a camera strapped to his body. Looking for fitting music, he turned to “Meddle”, a record his mother had given him: “Echoes”, which filled the whole second side, ran almost exactly as long as his edit. Unable to pay for the rights, the filmmakers struck a deal with the band: they could use the track, and Pink Floyd could project the footage at their concerts.

Nick Mason recalls the band first seeing the film while touring Australia and being stunned, calling it “absolutely sensational”. The drummer describes “Meddle” as an experimental record the band essentially produced themselves, without a real producer, helped by the engineers at Abbey Road Studios, and says it captures a band playing purely for the joy of it.

Pink Floyd formed in London in 1964 and became one of the defining names in progressive and psychedelic rock. Their newest studio album, according to MusicBrainz, is “The Endless River” from 2014.