Peter Gabriel Marks Full Moon With 'Four Kinds Of Horses'

05-05-2023

Cover art

(fcc) On the full moon, Friday 5 May, Peter Gabriel releases the next track from his forthcoming album i/o. This month the song is Four Kinds of Horses and first-up is the Bright-Side Mix.

Written by Peter Gabriel and produced by Peter Gabriel and Richard Russell, Four Kinds of Horses was recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire, The Beehive and Copper House in London.

Four Kinds of Horses actually began on Richard Russell's project 'Everything Is Recorded'. He's a friend (and founder of XL Records) and he asked me to pop into his studio. I came up with some chords, melodies and words on top of a groove he was working on. We tried a few things that didn't altogether work and so it lay dormant for quite a while. Then I started playing around with it again and changed the mood and the groove and something else began to emerge with a better chorus.

There were a number of things that triggered ideas for the song as it developed, including the Buddhist parable of the Four Kinds of Horses, which describes different ways a student can approach their spiritual practice. There is also a focus on "the interesting overlap of religion and peace on the one hand and violence and terrorism on the other. There was also a wonderful film by Hany Abu-Assad called 'Paradise Now' which shows two young men who end up being trained to become terrorists and it's a real insight into where the head goes."

As well as Russell, who set things in motion, Four Kinds of Horses also features Brian Eno on synths which "sounded like electric worms to me," says Gabriel. "As soon as I heard one I thought they would make a great three dimensional wall paper of sound and asked Brian to create eleven more." John Metcalfe again provides string arrangements, "beautiful work and as the song progresses, the strings play a key role" and backing vocals from Peter's daughter Melanie, "another lovely moment for a dad."

Continuing the theme of working with a different artist for each song release, this month's track is accompanied by a cover image featuring the work of Cornelia Parker.

This month we have a fascinating artist, Cornelia Parker, who does some extraordinary work. When we were originally looking at the Art from Us project, I'd seen some of her stuff with exploding rooms and had been fascinated by that, so I'm really happy that she agreed to work with us on this. The photogravure technique of William Henry Fox Talbot was an inspiration for her in this piece, and some of the other glass-based images in the series. I fell in love with this particular work - it's called 'Snap.'

Just like the previous full moon releases, Four Kinds of Horses will come with differing mix approaches from Mark 'Spike' Stent (Bright-Side Mix), released on 5 May. Tchad Blake (Dark-Side Mix) and Hans-Martin Buff's Atmos mix (In-Side Mix), released later in the month.

As well as new music, Peter Gabriel is about to embark on a tour with dates in the UK, Europe and North America.

i/o The Tour 2023
Europe & UK
Thursday, 18 May Krakow, Poland TAURON Arena
Saturday, 20 May Verona, Italy Verona Arena
Sunday, 21 May Milan, Italy Mediolanum Arena
Tuesday, 23 May Paris, France AccorHotels Arena
Wednesday, 24 May Lille, France Stade Pierre-Mauroy
Friday, 26 May Berlin, Germany Waldbuehne
Sunday, 28 May Munich, Germany Koenigsplatz
Tuesday, 30 May Copenhagen, Denmark Royal Arena
Wednesday, 31 May Stockholm, Sweden Avicii Arena
Friday, 2 June Bergen, Norway Koengen
Monday, 5 June Amsterdam, Netherlands Ziggo Dome
Tuesday, 6 June Antwerp, Belgium Sportpaleis
Thursday, 8 June Zurich, Switzerland Hallenstadion
Saturday, 10 June Cologne, Germany Lanxess Arena
Monday, 12 June Hamburg, Germany Barclays Arena
Tuesday, 13 June Frankfurt, Germany Festhalle
Thursday, 15 June Bordeaux, France Arkea Arena
Saturday, 17 June Birmingham, UK Utilita Arena
Monday, 19 June London, UK The O2
Tuesday, 20 June Nottingham, UK Motorpoint Arena
Thursday, 22 June Glasgow, UK OVO Hydro
Friday, 23 June Manchester, UK AO Arena
Sunday, 25 June Dublin, Ireland 3Arena

North America
Friday, 8 September Quebec City, QC Videotron Centre
Saturday, 9 September Ottawa, ON Canadian Tire Centre
Monday, 11 September Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
Wednesday, 13 September Montreal, QC Bell Centre
Thursday, 14 September Boston, MA TD Garden
Saturday, 16 September Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
Monday, 18 September New York, NY Madison Square Garden
Wednesday, 20 September Washington, DC Capital One Arena
Friday, 22 September Buffalo, NY Keybank Center
Saturday, 23 September Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena
Monday, 25 September Columbus, OH Nationwide Arena
Wednesday, 27 September Cleveland, OH Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
Friday, 29 September Detroit, MI Little Caesars Arena
Saturday, 30 September Chicago, IL United Center
Monday, 2 October Milwaukee, WI Fiserv Forum
Tuesday, 3 October St Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center
Saturday, 7 October Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena
Sunday, 8 October Seattle, WA Climate Pledge Arena
Wednesday, 11 October San Francisco, CA Chase Center
Friday, 13 October Los Angeles, CA Kia Forum
Saturday 14 October Palm Springs, CA Acrisure Arena
Monday, 16 October Denver, CO Ball Arena
Wednesday, 18 October Austin, TX Moody Center
Thursday, 19 October Dallas, TX American Airlines Center
Saturday, 21 October Houston, TX Toyota Center