Why Pink Floyd...? releases on EMI include re-issues of all 14 studio albums and unheard recordings from archives
More than four decades after they released their first album, previously unheard recordings from Pink Floyd are to be released this summer.
The tracks will be unearthed from the archives in a schedule of releases which will include collectors' box sets and remastered studio recordings. The unheard recordings include a version of the album title track Wish You Were Here featuring jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli.
The releases draw a line under legal disputes between the group and their label EMI. In March last year the veteran rockers went to the high court to prevent EMI selling individual tracks online via sites such as iTunes, arguing that in 1999 they signed a contract that "prohibits the sale of albums in any configuration other than the original". Ten months later, the surviving band members – Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason – agreed to the sale of single digital downloads.
All 14 studio albums will be re-released under the banner "Why Pink Floyd...?" from September. The Dark Side Of The Moon will be available in a six-disc "immersion" box set or a mere two-disc "experience" version, as well digitally and as a collectors' vinyl LP.
Wish You Were Here will be available on five discs, with material from the band's 1974 Wembley dates, including a 20-minute live version of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, or two. The Wall, which has sold 25m double sets, will be available in a seven-disc set, including a previously unreleased demo version of The Wall. A single album Best Of collection will also be released.
If more proof were needed that the band have finally embraced the digital age, or have at least loosened the concept of "artistic integrity", a campaign around the release will let fans make "their own creative contributions to the band's music" while iPhone Apps will chart the band's history and influence.