How Richard Wright’s Return as a Full Member Shaped The Division Bell’s Keyboard-Driven Sound

For A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987), Richard Wright was technically a hired musician — David Gilmour and Nick Mason brought him in as a session player after the legal battle with Roger Waters, but he wasn’t listed as a full band member. The album was essentially a Gilmour solo project with guest keyboard parts. Wright later said he felt like “a sideman” and contributed only a few keyboard overdubs, no writing credits.

By The Division Bell (1994), the dynamic flipped. Wright was reinstated as an equal partner, co-writing five of the album’s eleven tracks and bringing in chord progressions that Gilmour described as “very special” — like the haunting opening of “Cluster One” and the jazzy coda of “Wearing the Inside Out.” His Hammond B-3 and Farfisa organs replaced the cold, layered synth pads of the 80s, giving the album a warmer, more breathing texture that recalled the Dark Side and Wish You Were Here eras.

That keyboard-forward approach also changed how the band wrote. Instead of Gilmour building songs around guitar riffs first, many tracks started as Wright’s piano or organ sketches. The result was an album where the keyboards don’t just pad the mix — they drive the harmony, as heard in “Marooned” and “Keep Talking.” Wright’s full readmission didn’t just make him a member again; it gave the band its most collaborative, patient sound since the 1970s.