Peter Gabriel: "o\i" is due to be released on 27 November

Now we know for sure – o\i, Peter Gabriel's new album, is due to be released on 27 November. You can find all the details here.

Since January, Peter Gabriel has been releasing the new songs from his upcoming album o\i one by one on each full moon. Ten songs have been released so far, and there will be a total of 13 on the album. The release has now been officially announced, and further details have been provided.

o\i is out on 27 November – the tracks

The album is now set to be officially released on Friday, 27 November (i.e. after the November full moon on 24 November). Back in January, Peter had mentioned the album will contain twelve tracks. In the most recent full-moon video, he corrected this and announced that o\i would feature 13 tracks. As of today, all the track titles have also been revealed. The final track listing will be:

Been Undone
Put The Bucket Down
What Lies Ahead
Till Your Mind Is Shining
Won't Stand Down
Who Are We Talking To?
Yes, It Will Go
One By One
A Hard Lesson
Face The Wall
I Belong To The Sky
Looking For The Happy
Sacrament

The individual track reviews about all tracks released (so far) can be found here.

o\i – the formats

The album has in fact turned out to be a double album, as the 13 tracks do not fit on a single CD. It is being released as a 4CD set, containing two 2CDs each featuring the Bright-Side and Dark-Side mixes. It's a hardcover book in CD-size with a 32-page booklet. The first CD ends with One By One and the album has a total running time of 82 minutes. As with i/o, the vinyl release consists of one 2LP for the Bright-Side mix and one 2LP for the Dark-Side mix. Each side of the vinyl contains three tracks, except for the first side, which contains four tracks. The track order corresponds to that mentioned above. Vinyl comes in gatefold sleeve, obi-strip and as well has a 32 page booklet. It also contains a high-res download card.

As well as the standard black LP, vinyl enthusiasts will also be treated to a whole range of coloured vinyl editions. However, these will generally be available exclusively from certain retailers and/or only in certain countries:

• Solid Green (Bright-Side) and Solid Purple (Dark-Side) (Europe, HMV & JPC)
• Neon Green (Bright-Side) and Neon Pink (Dark-Side) (Europe, Indie Shops, RealWorld)
• Neon Green (Bright-Side) and Neon Violet (Dark-Side) (USA)
• Translucent Green (Bright-Side) and Translucent Purple (Dark-Side) (USA)

There is also a Dolby Atmos version. Once again, Hans-Martin Buff is responsible for this; he won a Grammy for his Atmos mix of i/o. However, the o\i version will be released on 27 November digitally only on the relevant platforms. A Blu-ray release has not yet been announced. We consider it likely, however, that such a release will follow in one form or another at a later date.

There will be no box set, as there was for i/o.

o\i – Background and special features

By the time of the November full moon, only twelve songs will have been released. The thirteenth song will then also be available a few days later, coinciding with the album's release. Nevertheless, there is likely to be a Full Moon video for the final song, which is set to be released on the December full moon (on 24 December!). This video will then bring the campaign, which began on 3 January, to a close. We assume that this final song will be Sacrament.

Who Are We Talking To? is likely to be the final version of the track Radio Everyone. Among fans, the track has repeatedly been mentioned as a candidate for i/o or o\i. Incidentally, the Dark-Side mix of this song was not produced by Tchad Blake, but by Mike Elizondo.

The cover art is once again by Nadav Kander and is unmistakably inspired by the i/o artwork.

i/o and o\i – an overarching concept

The press release now also makes it clear that Peter regards both albums as part of a single, overarching process. Whilst many fans had always suspected this, Peter had never explicitly spoken of an overarching concept throughout the year – even though the graphic elements suggested as much.

Peter says: 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.

More from the press statement

Peter Gabriel returns with a brand-new collection of songs after a mere three years – his shortest gap between studio albums since the early 1980s. o\i  is a companion piece to its reflected name-sake i/o expanding on many of the same themes: our relationship with nature, the passing of time, the increasing influence of technology in our lives 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," he says.

The 13 tracks of o\i showcase the breadth of Gabriel's song-writing palette, lyrically always insightful and imaginative, able to explore big themes with emotional conviction whilst retaining a peerless ability to speak to us, the listener, directly, personally, intimately. Songs that pull the heart strings, and reflect our hopes and fears sit alongside those full of optimism, love and joy, where the groove is king, and keeping still an impossibility.

"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. 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."

o\i was written and produced by Peter Gabriel and recorded primarily at Real World Studios and Peter's home studio. The album, like most Gabriel records, contains both songs that have been written since the last album and some that have taken years, decades, to complete. "Sometimes things take time," he adds, "most people do stuff a lot faster – but I have no problem with understanding my own process. Some things will mature and evolve spontaneously and some will just stay hidden-away in a box until their moment in the light appears."

Piece by piece, one by one, the monthly full moon releases come together with the release of the album o\i, and, with two albums in three years, there's no doubt that this collective body of work proves Gabriel is having a late career creative high. We will keep watching the moon to see what's coming next… 

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