Peter Gabriel i/o (Bright-Side, Dark-Side, In-Side Mixes) 4LP, 2CD & Blu-Ray Audio Disc Deluxe Box Set

TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 4/5 Sonics in the March 2024 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

More than 20 years in the making, December 2023 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.

12 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. Our connection to the world around us - "I'm just a part of everything," Peter sings on title track "i/o" - is a recurring motif, but so too the passing of time, mortality and grief, alongside such themes as injustice, surveillance and the roots of terrorism. While reflective, the mood is never despondent; i/o is musically adventurous, often joyous and ultimately full of hope.

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." 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 recognizes that "[t]hey have the same obsessive attention to their visual work that we musicians have in sound."

Both versions are included on the double-CD package, and are also available separately as double vinyl albums. A third version - the In-Side Mix, in Dolby Atmos, comes courtesy of Hans-Martin Buff "doing a wonderful job generating these much more three-dimensional mixes" and is included in the three-disc set, including Blu-ray.

The album features contributions from guitarist David Rhodes, bassist Tony Levin and drummer Manu Katché as well as Brian Eno, 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 harmonies and the New Blood Orchestra, led by John Metcalfe, both soothe and soar.

This box set comes in a foil-blocked clamshell box with OBI-band, containing both Bright-Side and Dark-Side stereo mixes of the album across four pieces of black vinyl cut at 33rpm. The same mixes also appear across two CDs and the In-Side Mixes on a Blu-ray in Dolby Atmos. The Blu-ray also contains 24/96 versions of the Bright-Side and Dark-Side stereo mixes. Also included is a casebound book with expanded liner notes and a poster.

[i/o] follows a recognizable template, balancing its innate moodiness with a few sprightly numbers that relieve the tension - a blueprint that's been in place since So. The familiar approach helps illuminate how I/O does mark an emotional progression, finding Gabriel curiously optimistic as he searches for new beginnings, discovering glimmers of hope within the darkness. This shift isn't merely evident in the 'Bright Side' mix, either. There's an inherent openness to the songs Gabriel completed for I/O, a spirit evident in such titles as 'Road to Joy,' 'Love Can Heal,' 'This Is Home,' and 'Live and Let Live.' Some of these songs surge, some simmer, but they all return to an idea essayed on the title track: 'stuff coming out, stuff going in/I'm just a part of everything,' a worldview that's intimate and all-encompassing.

A vital album of new studio material. Music marked by openness, honesty, caring, and love. Eternity.