Today (March 7th) sees the mesmerising new studio album by Ron Geesin, his first in almost two decades. To Pink Floyd fans, he is best known for his work with Roger Waters on the soundtrack to the movie, The Body (and subsequent soundtrack album), and with the Pink Floyd on their 1970 epic, Atom Heart Mother, which he co-wrote and orchestrated (and which we interviewed him at length about), although he has been creating and crafting for almost half a century.

The album, "RonCycle1 - the journey of a melody", is one of his most ambitious projects to date. Beginning work on it in 1986, the album is an integral suite composed of sixteen pieces - some of them a mere minute long. Tonefloat, who are releasing the album, note that "elements and influences from his entire career are passing by the audience's ears, ranging from puristic folk and proto-funk to orchestral meditations and the complex metrics of progressive rock. Thanks to a clearly defined narrative, which Geesin readily expounds upon in the liner notes, the result has nonetheless turned out entirely coherent". It's certainly one of the most intriguing, entertaining and different albums we've heard in some time.

The album is available now as a limited edition of 300 copies on 180 grams black vinyl in mounted sleeve, with a free CD copy of the album, and a regular edition on CD in Japanese style mini album gatefold cardboard. You can buy either edition through this link where you can also get a taster of a couple of tracks.

Our very best wishes to David Gilmour today, who will be celebrating his 65th birthday!

Born and raised in Cambridge, David became involved with various bands in the area, principally Jokers Wild who were a popular draw when they played, before joining Pink Floyd in 1968. More recent years have seen David concentrating on his solo career, and helping out chums on their musical projects on an ad hoc basis - most recently, appearing on stage with Phil Manzanera at the legendary Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, with Amadou & Mariam at the Crisis "hidden" charity show, and with Jeff Beck at the Royal Albert Hall.

With it being now five years since the release of his last solo album, "On An Island", many people's thoughts are on whether we might see a follow up to that. Recently, Polly Samson revealed that one of the things she will be working on are some lyrics for David, so that bodes well!

Many happy returns, David, on this special day.

Our Facebook page regulars were aware yesterday of a new interview with Roger Waters, conducted by Riz Khan on the Al Jazeera television channel. With the very short notice we had of the interview, it was the best way to alert people to it - so if you haven't yet done so, join us on Facebook now!

In the interview, Roger talked about his campaign for the rights of the Palestinian people and why, more than 30 years after he wrote the globally-acclaimed album 'The Wall', he is focusing on another wall - the Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank.

Roger touched on the music, and the current tour, during the chat, but most of it was devoted to his views on the situation in the region. Some will agree with him, others will disagree - it is, of course, a controversial subject, but you can see the interview in full here:

This coming week, BBC 6 Music feature an early BBC recording of Pink Floyd (no doubt from the Paris Theatre in 1971), in the Gideon Coe show from 9pm to midnight, on Wednesday March 9th. Other artists included on Gideon's show that night are "rugged violinist" Seth Lakeman, Geno Washington, and an early session from Courtney Love's Hole.

There are three ways to listen to BBC 6 Music - via www.bbc.co.uk/6music (click the Listen Live button), via DAB digital radio, or via digital satellite television (Sky), digital cable (Virgin Media), and Freeview. It'll also be available via the BBC's iPlayer service. More details here. Our thanks to David Haddock for the info...