Review of the album “i/o” by Peter Gabriel

For the first time since 2002, ex-Genesis singer Peter Gabriel presented a collection of new songs to the public. I listened to the album entitled “i/o” Igor Gavrilov.

It took Peter Gabriel 21 years to bring his tenth solo album, i/o, to the public. Actually, “i/o” was supposed to be released a year and a half after the album “Up” (2002), but the masters were fascinated by other projects for a long time. He produced the large combined project “Big Blue Bal” (2008) and composed music for Pixar’s WALL-E, recorded covers (“Scratch My Back”, 2009) and made new arrangements of his own hits (“New Blood”, 2011), and was involved in political activism and managed the WOMAD festival, which showcased the best of world music.

Throughout this period, Peter Gabriel continued to write new songs, and as of 2005 he had 150 song sketches in the works. In the 2010s, he continued to intrigue the audience, he even played some music at concerts, in general, he fed the audience “breakfast”. And even when in 2021 he announced in an interview that he was working in the studio on 17 new songs, this news went “under the radar.” The world was full of new music.

But not the kind that only Peter Gabriel writes. His videos were among MTV favorites back in the 1980s, and the records “So” (1986) and “Us” (1992) were standard pop albums. Working with exceptionally talented instrumentalists, Gabriel has honed his skills as a songwriter and arranger to perfection. He was a top commercial artist and at the same time a “musician for musicians.” Music lovers loved to pick apart his recordings, savor the nuances of production, and look for a new sound in them that should be appreciated, but very difficult to copy.

Unlike another experimenter, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel was an unquestioning authority for producers and pop writers in post-Soviet territories. Without his many hours of “hanging out” on Gabriel’s music, the style of Konstantin Meladze and Maxim Fadeev would not have developed, without his support there would not have been the phenomenon of the Farlanders group with Inna Zhelannaya, Sergei Starostin and Sergei Kalachev. And ordinary sofa music lovers simply prayed for him. And we waited for new songs.

Since the beginning of 2023, Peter Gabriel began publishing singles for the new record. He released new songs every full moon. He liked this idea so much that after the release of i/o he decided to stick to this release schedule. Each new song was released in two versions, called by the author “light side” and “dark side”. The title of the album, “i/o,” means “input/output,” that is, “power button,” but it also coincides with the name of the moon of Jupiter with the largest number of active volcanoes in the solar system.

As a result, the album “i/o” consists of 24 tracks, but these are only 12 songs, each of which is posted here in two versions. So when the upbeat final song “Live And Let Live” ends, the “dark” version of the opening track “Panopticom” immediately follows. Does it tell the listener anything new about an already familiar number? Not only an experienced sound engineer will hear the differences, but still the average listener could do without these versions – or they could have been released later, on some deluxe version of the album. However, I don’t want to turn off the song. Simply because song material of this level is very rare today and I want to enjoy it again. The “light” version of “Panopticom” is decided in a more “commercial” key, the “dark” one sounds a little sharper and darker, but Tony Levin’s bass and synthesizers controlled by Brian Eno, in both cases create an incomparable emotional field, and when Gabriel’s insinuating voice says “The cloud of smoke takes its characteristic shape, all the phones are taking pictures while it’s still warm…”, this is perceived as a click, by which at least something in the world fell into place.

Manipulating different song mixes and adapting new material for different types of sound systems is just part of Peter Gabriel’s long-standing play with science and technology. Now he looks almost beyond the horizon. Back in the 1980s, the musician, together with Brian Eno and Laurie Anderson, decided to create a virtual reality park in Barcelona, ​​and now, in interviews accompanying the release of “i/o,” he talks about the problems of longevity and the “interspecies Internet” that will allow communication with chimpanzees and dolphins and read other people’s thoughts. Needless to say, the digital revolution in music and the invasion of new formats, which took place during the pause between Gabriel’s albums, were something natural for him.

“There is no point in being a pessimist, because it significantly reduces your chances of survival,” Gabriel tells Mojo magazine. “Artificial intelligence will turn our world upside down, and there will be serious problems ahead of us. But we are extremely resourceful, and I think what we need now is to bring together people outside of politics, older people with their wisdom and young people with their energy and idealism, to come together and push those in power to the wall.”

For all the scope of Peter Gabriel’s imagination, his new album, all so comfortable and rounded, does not explain why the world is sliding towards the archaic instead of rushing into the future. But this is a Peter Gabriel album, and even with simple wireless headphones you can appreciate the beauty of the blues of “Playing For Time” that rises from Chopin’s funeral march, or the two simple violin notes in “Four Kinds Of Horses” that pull you out of any depression.