The Orb have collaborated with Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour for their tenth studio album, Metallic Spheres.

Due out October 4, the album is comprised of ten new tracks which originated with Gilmour (pictured above in his 70s heyday) jamming in the studio with producer (and former Killing Joke member) Youth. Orb mainman Alex Paterson subsequently took these unfinished sketches and developed them into the finished set.

A statement appeared on Gilmour’s website earlier this week, keen to accurately define the Floydman’s role in the project:

“David is not working with The Orb on a new album, contrary to some reports, but you may remember that he had been in the studio jamming with Martin ‘Youth’ Glover in recent months, who was at the time working on an ambient mix of the ‘Chicago’ re-recording, which was released to raise awareness of the plight of Gary McKinnon.

“Alex Paterson was not involved in the sole jamming session and the only plan initially was for David to play guitar on that one track – ‘Chicago’.

“However, as it turns out and as you can see, the result of that jam session has now been spread across the next Orb album, Metallic Spheres, which will be released as ‘The Orb featuring David Gilmour’”.

Making the most of Gilmour’s involvement is a wise move on the part of The Orb, whose last album, 2009’s Baghdad Batteries, was something of a flop. Metallic Spheres will be released on CD, LP and download, but in a “3D60 mix”. 3D60 is a new “three-dimensional” audio format that has been developed by Youth, and which apparently doesn’t require any special equipment to work effectively.

The final tracklist and extras have yet to be confirmed.