Peter Gabriel - i/ o (Dark-Side Mix 2LP - Vinyl Record

Peter Gabriel's first album of new material since 2002's Up, called i/o, has been over 20 years in the making and is finally set to release in December. Peter has been releasing a new song from the album on the occasion of every full moon throughout 2023. Each track has been allowed to find its own time and space, to enjoy its own orbit, being revealed roughly every four weeks. According to Peter, "It's a little like getting a Lego piece each month." The completed album contains 12 tracks that showcase Peter's ongoing ability to write breathtaking songs and his thrilling voice, which remains delightfully intact. The songs are intelligent, thoughtful, and often thought-provoking, tackling life and the universe, our connection to the world around us, the passing of time, mortality and grief, as well as themes like injustice, surveillance, and the roots of terrorism. Despite the reflective nature of the album, the mood is never despondent; i/o is musically adventurous, often joyous, and ultimately full of hope, topped off by the rousingly optimistic closing song, Live and Let Live. 

i/o is not simply a collection of a dozen songs. All 12 tracks are subject to two stereo mixes: the Bright-Side Mix, handled by Mark 'Spike' Stent, and the Dark-Side Mix, as reshaped by Tchad Blake. "We have two of the greatest mixers in the world in Tchad and Spike, and they definitely bring different characters to the songs. Tchad is very much a sculptor building a journey with sound and drama, Spike loves sound and assembling these pictures, so he's more of a painter." Additionally, Peter has 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. Peter recognises that "They have the same obsessive attention to their visual work that we musicians have in sound."