Peter Gabriel is set to release his first new album in 20 years later in 2022 with a tour to follow.
Gabriel’s longtime drummer Manu Katché said the band is finishing a new album, which they will take on a world tour in 2023.
Earlier in 2022, Gabriel said that he had “a lot of songs I’m trying to get finished” and is hoping to have something out by the end of the year. In 2021, Gabriel also posted a series of photos featuring himself with Katché along with guitarist David Rhodes and bassist Tony Levin, in a recording studio at his Real World Studios in Bath, England.
Gabriel recently said that he and his band had worked on 17 songs in 10 days at the studio.
“I’m excited by what is being cooked at the moment,” said Gabriel in a 2020 interview, first teasing the new music. “I have been slowed down quite a lot by lockdown,” said Gabriel at the time.”We’ve not been able to have Dickie [Richard Chappell], my engineer here, but I have enough songs that I like to make a record I’m proud of.”
Famous for taking his time in between releases, the working title of the new album is I/O and comes 20 years since Gabriel’s ninth album Up, which took him nearly a decade to complete.
Panopticom (Bright-Side Mix) by Peter Gabriel, released on the full moon 6 January 2023. This is the first song to be revealed from the album i/o.
The Bright-Side Mix is by Mark 'Spike' Stent and the track is accompanied by a cover image by the artist David Spriggs.
Written and produced by Peter Gabriel, Panopticom was recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire and The Beehive in London.
‘The first song is based on an idea I have been working on to initiate the creation of an infinitely expandable accessible data globe: The Panopticom,’ says Gabriel. ‘We are beginning to connect a like-minded group of people who might be able to bring this to life, to allow the world to see itself better and understand more of what’s really going on.’
Musically Panopticom drives along powered by the engine- room of long-time collaborators Tony Levin, David Rhodes and Manu Katché, underpinned by haunting electronics from Brian Eno. Additional backing vocals from Ríoghnach Connolly of The Breath. The lyric is, in part, inspired by the extraordinary work of three groups, Forensic Architecture, Bellingcat and the Gabriel co-founded pioneering human rights organisation WITNESS.
The release of Panopticom on the full moon is no coincidence and in true Gabriel fashion the approach for i/o will be a little different from the norm. The lunar phases will guide the release plan in 2023, with a new song revealed each full moon.
‘Some of what I’m writing about this time is the idea that we seem incredibly capable of destroying the planet that gave us birth and that unless we find ways to reconnect ourselves to nature and to the natural world we are going to lose a lot. A simple way of thinking about where we fit in to all of this is looking up at the sky… and the moon has always drawn me to it.’
Each new release of music will come with a specific piece of art, ‘we’ve been looking at the work of many hundreds of artists,’ says Gabriel, and Panopticom features the work ‘Red Gravity’ by David Spriggs.
‘It was the theme of surveillance that connected me with the work of David Spriggs because he’d done a piece relating to that. David does this amazing stuff using many layers of transparencies so you get these strange creations with a real intensity to them. Part of what he does is imagine what art might look like a few years in the future and then try and create accordingly and I think he’s done that very successfully in this particular piece.’
The Court (Dark-Side Mix) by Peter Gabriel, released on the full moon of 5 February 2023. The second song to be revealed from the album i/o.
The Dark-Side Mix is by Tchad Blake and the track is accompanied by a cover image featuring the work of artist and sculptor Tim Shaw.
Written and produced by Peter Gabriel, The Court was recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire and The Beehive in London, and features contributions from Brian Eno alongside Tony Levin, David Rhodes and Manu Katché, as well as backing vocals from Peter’s daughter Melanie Gabriel. The orchestral arrangement is by John Metcalfe with Peter Gabriel and was recorded at British Grove Studios in London with a number of players who previously featured in the New Blood Orchestra.
‘I had this idea for ‘the court will rise’ chorus, so it became a free-form, impressionistic lyric that connected to justice, but there’s a sense of urgency there. A lot of life is a struggle between order and chaos and in some senses the justice or legal system is something that we impose to try and bring some element of order to the chaos. That’s often abused, it’s often unfair and discriminatory but at the same time it’s probably an essential part of a civilised society. But we do need to think sometimes about how that is actually realised and employed.’
The song is partly inspired by the work of NAMATI whose mission is to provide people around the world access to justice they may not otherwise be able to afford. ‘I recommend you check them out,’ says Gabriel. ‘They do a brilliant job assembling teams around the world to help with different issues.’
Just like the previous song Panopticom, The Court will come with differing mix approaches from Tchad Blake (Dark-Side Mix), Mark ‘Spike’ Stent (Bright-Side Mix) and Hans-Martin Buff’s Atmos In-Side Mix.
‘I quite like this idea of the multiple mix approach because for most artists it’s the process, not the product, that is most important. In some ways, I’m trying to open up the process a little more for those that are interested.’
Each new release of music comes with a specific piece of art and the cover for The Court depicts the ritual installation Lifting the Curse by Tim Shaw. The work was originally created to literally lift the curse the was issued to the Royal Academy and its members by the artists Gilbert & George, but is also addresses a wider gathering of dark forces with particular reference to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The ritual burning was Royal Academy member Shaw’s visceral and robust response to them both.
‘Tim Shaw is a great artist whose work is powerful, political and shamanistic. He has often dealt with tough themes such as war and torture. He grew up in Belfast so experienced the fear and reality of seeing violence around him, which I am sure must have made a deep impression.
This particular image has an unusual story attached, but I just responded to the photograph of this very strange figure that was being ritualistically burnt. The story behind it, I only discovered afterwards.’
‘I don’t know why that particular image was chosen for this track,’ says Tim Shaw ‘but thinking about it, it could be that when you look at the figure perhaps it stands there to be accused, judged and in this case it’s burnt as a punishment process that takes place.’