It was the third Pink Floyd album recorded under the leadership of the guitarist, David Gilmour, after the departure of the bassist, Roger Waters, and the first following the death of the keyboardist, Richard Wright, in 2008, who appears posthumously.

The Endless River comprises mainly instrumental and ambient music composed of material recorded during sessions for the previous Pink Floyd album, The Division Bell (1994).

The Endless River is based on music recorded during the sessions for Pink Floyd's previous studio album, The Division Bell (1994).

[5] Pink Floyd recorded hours of music during the sessions;[6] the engineer Andy Jackson edited it into an hour-long ambient composition tentatively titled The Big Spliff,[5] but the band did not release it.

[8] In 2013, Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason decided to revisit the unused Division Bell recordings to make a new album, re–recording parts, adding new ones, and using modern studio technology.

In November 2013, Gilmour led sessions with Manzanera, Youth and Jackson to record material with Mason, saxophonist Gilad Atzmon and bassist Guy Pratt.

[20] Gilmour said: "Unapologetically, this is for the generation that wants to put its headphones on, lie in a beanbag, or whatever, and get off on a piece of music for an extended period of time.

"[21] Mason described the album as a tribute to Wright: "I think this record is a good way of recognising a lot of what he does and how his playing was at the heart of the Pink Floyd sound.

[24] The Endless River cover art depicts a young man punting a Thames skiff across a sea of clouds towards the sun.

[28] Powell discovered 18-year-old Egyptian artist Ahmed Emad Eldin and asked to use the concept from his piece Beyond the Sky for The Endless River.

[25] The Endless River was also released in boxed DVD and Blu-ray "deluxe" editions, containing a 24-page hardback book, postcards, and a bonus disc of three additional tracks and six music videos.

[43][44] Prominent installations of the album's artwork were placed around the world, including a four-sided 8m tall billboard placed in South Bank, London,[26][45] and large-scale poster advertisements in cities such as Berlin, Paris, Los Angeles, Milan, New York and Sydney.

[53] Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of the Financial Times praised the nostalgic "Floydian" sound, reminiscent of Pink Floyd's work prior to The Wall (1979), and wrote: "How fitting that a band so accustomed to loss should close their account with an engrossing elegy to their own past.

[64] In The Guardian, Alexis Petridis described it as "not a new album from an extant band, but an echo from the past – or a last, warm but slightly awkward group hug ... on those terms, it works just fine".

"[60] Andy Gill of The Independent called it "just aimless jamming, one long thread of Dave Gilmour's guitar against Rick Wright's pastel keyboards and Nick Mason's tentative percussion, with nary a melody of any distinction alighted upon for the duration .... without the sparking creativity of a Syd or Roger, all that's left is ghastly faux-psychedelic dinner-party muzak.

"[55] The NME wrote that The Endless River was "a collection of spruced-up outtakes ... On those limited terms it works well enough, and it's interesting from a certain geeky perspective, but it's never quite as satisfying or substantial as you want it to be.

"[59] Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times called it "so excruciatingly dull (even by Pink Floyd's often-dull standards) that the band's name on the cover feels like a straight-up bait-and-switch".

[70] The album also debuted at number one in several other countries, including France, Germany, Portugal, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, New Zealand,[71] and Canada.