The track "Smile" was heard briefly in an unmastered form on the BBC2 show Three Men in a Boat which retraced a trip on the River Thames that passed the houseboat.

Other sections were recorded at David's farm in Sussex and Mark Knopfler's British Grove Studios.

Orchestrations on the album were arranged by noted Polish film composer Zbigniew Preisner and conducted by Robert Ziegler.

Gilmour toured the album with Richard Wright, Phil Manzanera and long-time members of the live Pink Floyd band, Guy Pratt and Jon Carin.

The shows included the entire On an Island album plus Pink Floyd songs such as "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", "Echoes", "Fat Old Sun", "Arnold Layne", "High Hopes", "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb" among others.