Peter Gabriel & .idk. – "Beyond The Brilliant Haze"

A surprise collaboration between Peter Gabriel and the rapper .idk. was released today, based on recording sessions for the Everything Is Recorded project.

The album i/o included a track titled Four Kinds Of Horses, on which Paul Russell is credited as co-producer. Some of the ideas for the song were recorded during those sessions.

Now, a single from the project titled Beyond The Brilliant Haze has been released, based on these recordings and now finalized. Alongside Peter, the track is primarily carried by the U.S. rapper .idk. and, stylistically, is quite a departure from what Peter Gabriel usually does.

Peter Gabriel writes on his website:

A striking departure from the spectral folk and soul that defined Everything Is Recorded's acclaimed 2025 album Temporary (Disco Pogo's album of the year), Beyond The Brilliant Haze is a unique meeting of minds, and a juxtaposition by design. Mixed – at Peter Gabriel's request – by Mike Elizondo, the Dr. Dre protégé and Grammy-winning producer and songwriter behind records including 50 Cent's 'In Da Club' and Eminem's 'The Real Slim Shady,' the track positions three artists from different worlds into something genuinely unexpected.

The collaboration extends a working relationship between Russell and Gabriel: Russell co-produced Four Kinds of Horses for Gabriel's 2023 i/o album, the artist's first UK No.1 in over 30 years. Meanwhile, .idk. – born Jason Mills, raised in Camp Springs, Maryland and described by Forbes as "the polymath of rap" – has long operated at the most adventurous edges of US rap. From the off-kilter maximalism of 2019's Is He Real? to the soulful sweep of 2021's USEE4YOURSELF, and most recently the raw mixtape E.T.D.S. (Even The Devil Smiles), .idk. is a fellow prolific innovator, having collaborated with the likes of Tyler, The Creator, Pusha T, Pharrell and KAYTRANADA among others. All three artists have built reputations for bold, shapeshifting work that resists easy categorisation.

Everything Is Recorded – Beyond The Brilliant Haze is available here and on Bandcamp.