The voice of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking is featured on a song on Pink Floyd's upcoming album, "The Endless River."
The renowned English scientist's synthesized voice appears on the track "Talkin' Hawkin,'" according to Consequence of Sound. This is the second song by the iconic band to feature the 72-year-old Hawking's sampled voice on their record, the first being the track "Keep Talking," from the band's last record, 1994's "The Division Bell."
According to a Pink Floyd spokesperson, both voice recordings were taken from Hawking's speech in a 1994 British Telecom commercial. "Talkin' Hawkin,'" however, is not meant to be a sequel to "Keep Talkin," The Guardian reports.
Gilmour decided to use clips of the speech for the 1994 album after being nearly moved to tears by it.
"This was the most powerful piece of television advertising that I've ever seen in my life," he said in an interview in that year. "I don't think he even wrote the words that they used with him, but... he was in it, in his wheelchair."
"He looks kind of strange. And I just found it so moving that I felt that I had to try and do something with it, or with him or something, in some way," he continued.
"The Endless River," to be released on November 7, is the first album of original material released by Pink Floyd in 20 years. It has 12 songs written or co-written by the late keyboardist Richard Wright.
Much of what ended up on the album was taken from sessions recorded with Wright in 1993, which the band "revisited and reworked," says an earlier The Guardian report.
"'The Endless River' is a tribute to Rick [Wright]," drummer Nick Mason said. "I think the record is a good way of recognizing a lot of what he does and how his playing is at the heart of the Pink Floyd sound," he said.
Most of the songs are instrumental, while Gilmour sings on four tracks.