Dwell Records has released a tribute to Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett entitled “Like Black Holes In The Sky.” While the singer founded Pink Floyd, he was only in the band for a few albums, but his influence has lasted much longer.

This tribute features a great lineup of prominent bands covering some of his most famous songs, as well as lesser known material. It features…Kylesa, Intronaut, Stinking Lizaveta, Jarboe, Pentagram, Jesu and Dredg among others. Unlike most tributes this is a pretty solid album. I particularly enjoy Stinking Lizaveta’s relentlessly heavy take on “Matilda Mother.” It begins with an ethereal phased out and delayed guitar which slowly begins to morph into a heavy drone, that not only does justice to the original song, but adds something fresh.

This is a release any fan of stoner or psychadelic rock will want to check out, if you haven’t already. The album is available in its entirety on MySpace (in streaming form), on CD and it is also available for download through iTunes.

According to his spokesman, Richard Wright, a founding member and keyboardist of Pink Floyd, died yesterday at the age of 65 after a short battle with cancer.

Wright not only played keyboards in the band, but also wrote and sang several songs from their most popular albums during the mid-70’s, such as “Dark Side of the Moon “ and Wish You Were Here.” Some of he better-known songs include “The Great Gig In The Sky,” and “Us And Them.”

David Gilmour, Pink Floyd’s guitarist and singer, referred to Wright as “gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognized Pink Floyd sound.

“Like Rick, I don’t find it easy to express my feelings in words, but I loved him and will miss him enormously. I have never played with anyone quite like him,” he said.

Gilmour goes on to express his belief that Pink Floyd’s greatest moments were with Wright “in full force.”

Richard Wright’s death comes just two years after Syd Barrett, the founding member and former singer and guitarist of Pink Floyd. Since that time, many tributes have popped up in his honor, such as the upcoming album Like Black Holes In The Sky: The Tribute to Syd Barrett, which includes bands like Jesu Kylesa and can be streamed in full on myspace. I’m sure it is only a matter of time before we see similar tributes to Wright.

As a fan of Nirvana, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and many other prominent musical artists, I often wonder what their music would sound like if it was played with different instruments. These bands are so classic that I’ve listened to their records so many times because they are just that good, but sometimes its nice to get a fresh perspective on the music.

One thing that I’m sure fans of these bands have seen when you’re shopping for CDs is these String Quartet Tributes. I’ve recently been listening to a few, particularly Nirvana’s Nevermind album reworked by the Section String Quartet. I must say, some of the songs sound really cool with all strings. You can hear, even more so, a lot of the genius in the melodies. It’s definitely something thats given me a fresh perspective on a lot of the songs, all of which I’ve been listening to since I was 10 or 11 years old.

I’ve looked into it further, and a label called Vitamin Records releases these. They have a pretty large number of different bands and albums…

Vitamin Records