Pink Floyd has reunited – without Roger Waters – to release its first new music in nearly three decades.
Proceeds from “Hey Hey Rise Up,” out now, will support the UN’s Ukraine Humanitarian Fund.
The track features David Gilmour on guitar, Nick Mason on drums, Guy Pratt on bass and Nitin Sawhney on keyboard. Audio of Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the Ukrainian band Boombox singing a protest song in Kyiv is featured. (Khlyvnyuk, who joined the army fighting the Russian invasion, was hospitalized after being hit by shrapnel.)
“We, like so many, have been feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people murdered by one of the world's major powers,” Gilmour explained, in a statement.
The 76-year-old musician, who has a Ukrainian daughter-in-law and grandchildren, added: “We want to express our support for Ukraine and in that way, show that most of the world thinks that it is totally wrong for a superpower to invade the independent democratic country that Ukraine has become.”
The single’s artwork features a painting by Maria Primachenko of Ukraine’s national flower, the sunflower.
Pink Floyd hasn’t released original music since 2014’s album The Endless River.