Before they went all vocal, Pink Floyd had a series of adventurous mainly instrumental albums drenched in prime psychedelia, of which Atom Heart Mother (1970) was one of the best.
Now, on December 8, 2023, a new edition of the fifth Pink Floyd LP will be made available on Sony Music as a special two-disc package in a 7-inch gatefold sleeve, containing the Atom Heart Mother album on CD and a Blu-ray disc featuring footage of “Atom Heart Mother” (Suite) performed at Hakone Aphrodite Festival, Japan on August 6, 1971 – originally released as part of The Early Years box set. The film has been upgraded from a recently discovered original tape of the time. It also includes a behind-the-scenes mini-documentary.
The only Pink Floyd footage at Hakone Aphrodite that exists is that of the 16-minute-long suite “Atom Heart Mother.” The details including the whereabouts of the master film and how it was shot had been a mystery for a long time. However, after fifty years, the original 16mm film of this video was discovered in a fan’s garage. The meticulous processes of digitizing, restoring and remastering were undertaken and finally this enhanced video will be released outside of Japan.
The set contains not only the original live footage (with audio taken from the gig at Hakone Aphrodite), but also behind-the-scenes footage of the band, traveling between the airport, the hotel, the press conference, the bullet train, the show set-up, and, of course, beautiful Japanese scenery.
