Peter Gabriel will release o\i, the companion album to his 2023 LP i/o, on Nov. 27, completing a 25-track joint project that has unfolded through two years of monthly full moon releases. “This record has been more of a marathon than a sprint. It’s the longest album I have ever put out with 13 tracks that complete the i/o / o\i 25 track joint project,” the 76-year-old artist says.

o\i will arrive in two stereo mixes: the Bright-Side mixes by Mark “Spike” Stent and the Dark-Side mixes by Tchad Blake, with Mike Elizondo handling the song “Who Are We Talking To?” Both versions will be included in a four-CD package, while the Bright-Side and Dark-Side editions will also be released separately as double-vinyl LPs. A digital-only Dolby Atmos In-Side mix has again been shaped by Hans-Martin Buff.

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The album follows i/o, which topped the U.K. album chart in 2023, and marks Gabriel’s shortest gap between studio albums since the early 1980s. The project began in earnest last year when Gabriel announced “another year of full moon releases” under the name o\i, following the same monthly-release model used for i/o. Like its predecessor, it explores themes including humanity’s relationship with nature, the passage of time, technology and our place in the world.

“Trying to get a handle on where you fit in life, that’s what I write about a lot,” Gabriel says.

Gabriel has also connected the new material to a longer-running exploration of technology and human consciousness. When he announced the project last year, he noted that some of the songs would “form part of the brain project” he had been exploring for a number of years. His latest comments place that work against an accelerating technological landscape. “The songs are a mix of thoughts and feelings,” Gabriel says. “I have been thinking about the future and how we might respond to it. We are sliding into a period of transition like no other, most likely triggered in three waves; AI, quantum computing and the brain computer interface. Artists have a role to look into the mists and, when they catch sight of something, to hold up a mirror.”

“We are not, and have never been, the exclusively self-determining, independent beings that we imagine we are,” he continues. “We have had a sense of entitlement that everything exists for our benefit — that we’ve been given the run of the world to exploit as we see fit. We are something else, a part of nature, a part of everything and when we feel that connection, shake our booty and give and receive a little love, it can help us find our proper place — and put a big smile on our faces. This is how I see the lumpy bits — i/o: the inside has a new way out and o\i: the outside has a new way in.”

Written and produced by Gabriel, o\i was recorded primarily at Real World Studios and his home studio. Gabriel’s longtime collaborators David Rhodes, Tony Levin and Manu Katché appear on many of the tracks, joined by members of the i/o touring band Richard Evans, Josh Shpak and Don E, as well as Real World staffers Faye Dolle and Katie May. The New Blood Orchestra, led by John Metcalfe, also features, alongside the Soweto Gospel Choir and Swedish all-male choir Orphei Drängar.

Additional contributors include Elizondo, Brian Eno, Leo Nocentelli, Tony Berg, Abe Rounds, Tom Cawley, Paolo Fresu, Linnea Olsson and Evan Smith. Gabriel’s daughter Melanie again contributes vocals.

The album’s visual component continues the full moon project’s collaboration with artists working across a wide range of mediums, including painting, sculpture, installation, embroidery and weaving. The artists involved are Janaina Mello Landini, Tomás Saraceno, Judy Chicago, Tatsuo Miyajima, Shirin Neshat, Juan Genovés, Roelof Louw, David Altmejd, Francis Alÿs, Tadashi Kawamata, Berndnaut Smilde, Tishan Hsu and Michal Rovner. The cover photograph is by Nadav Kander.

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