Peter Gabriel - i/o

i/o is the tenth studio album by British progressive rock musician Peter Gabriel, released in December 2023 via Real World Records.

More than 20 years in the making, this December finally sees the release of i/o, Peter Gabriel’s first album of new material since 2002’s Up.

During 2023, Peter has been releasing a new song from the album on the occasion of every full moon. Being revealed roughly every four weeks, each track has been allowed to find its own time and space, to enjoy its own orbit.

“It’s a little like getting a Lego piece each month,” Peter explains. “Now it’s time to stand back and admire the final, completed creation”.

And what a creation; twelve tracks of grace, gravity and great beauty that provide welcome confirmation of not only Peter’s ongoing ability to write stop-you-in-your-tracks songs but also of that thrilling voice, still perfectly, delightfully intact.

Throughout the album the intelligent and thoughtful (often thought-provoking) songs tackle life and the universe.

During 2021 Peter Gabriel recorded the first band material for i/o in the Real World Studios, alongside drummer Manu Katché, bassist Tony Levin and guitarist David Rhodes. Brian Eno also played a large part, contributing production, synthesizers and rhythm programming, electronics and sound design throughout the album.

There are notable contributions from the likes of Richard Russell, pianist Tom Cawley, trumpeters Josh Shpak and Paolo Fresu, cellist Linnea Olsson and keyboard player Don E. Peter’s daughter Melanie contributes warm backing vocals, as does Ríoghnach Connolly of The Breath. Soweto Gospel Choir and Swedish all-male choir Oprhei Drängar lend their magnificent harmonies and the mass strings of the New Blood Orchestra, led by John Metcalfe, both soothe and soar.

Peter has also invited a range of visual artists to contribute a piece of art to accompany each track. The dozen artists make an exceedingly impressive team of collaborators: Ai Weiwei, Nick Cave, Olafur Eliasson, Henry Hudson, Annette Messager, Antony Micallef, David Moreno, Cornelia Parker, Megan Rooney, Tim Shaw, David Spriggs and Barthélémy Toguo. Having handpicked the artists, Peter recognises that “they have the same obsessive attention to their visual work that we musicians have in sound.”

Both Mark 'Spike' Stent and Tchad Blake contributed a mix of each song from i/o. Gabriel said, "Rather than choosing only one of their mixes to release, I have decided that people should be able to hear all the great work that they are both doing”.

Stent's mixes are released as the 'Bright-Side Mix', while Blake's mixes are the 'Dark-Side Mix'. All the songs have each also received a third alternate mix in Dolby Atmos, called an 'In-Side Mix', by Hans-Martin Buff.

The album has received critical acclaim from music critics upon its release.

This double album 2CD package contains both the “Bright-Side Mixes” on CD1 and the “Dark-Side Mixes” on CD2 housed in a tri-fold gatefold sleeve with a 32 page booklet and orange OBI strip, pressed in Germany via Real World Records.