Peter Gabriel announces release date and details of ‘i/o’ – his first album in 21 years

18 October, 2023

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel has announced details of his new album ‘i/o’, his first collection of new material in over 20 years.

The 12-track album will be released on December 1, available in two stereo mixes on both CD and vinyl. You can pre-order it here.

Over the course of 2023, Gabriel has been releasing a new song every time there has been a full moon, and he has played shows throughout the UK, Europe and North America.

“After a years-worth of full moon releases, I’m very happy to see all these new songs back together on the good ship i/o and ready for their journey out into the world,” said Gabriel.

‘i.o’ has been recorded at Gabriel’s own Real World Studios near Bath. Alongside Gabriel, the album features regular contributions from guitarist David Rhodes, bassist Tony Levin and drummer Manu Katché. There are also recordings of the Soweto Gospel Choir and the Swedish all-male choir Oprhei Drängar, while several songs, according to a press release, “bear the fingerprints” of Brian Eno.

Gabriel’s last album of all-new material was 2002’s ‘Up’, although since then he has released 2010’s ‘Scratch My Back’, an album of cover versions, and 2011’s ‘New Blood’, which consisted of orchestral re-recordings of tracks from throughout his career.

One of the full moon recordings that is included on ‘i/o’ is ‘Four Kinds of Horses’, released in May. The song features Gabriel’s daughter Melanie on backing vocals and Eno on synthesiser. Other previously released songs include ‘Pantopticom’ and ‘The Court’.

Last month, Gabriel appeared in a video by Artist for Action to Prevent Gun Violence, an organisation that asks Americans to vote to eradicate gun violence in the country. “As much as I love the United States, I am always appalled at the ease with which anyone can get a weapon,” Gabriel says in the video.

In March, Gabriel weighed in on the AI debate, saying, “I’m probably just as scared [of AI] as everybody else, but I like to jump in the river rather than talk about it…I do think about it quite a lot, and I think not enough people are thinking about it.”

‘i/o’ Tracklisting