Peter Gabriel releases new song “Panopticom”

Peter Gabriel released “Panopticom”, first single of his upcoming studio album “i/o”. He announced that every full moon he will release a new song from the record.

‘The first song is based on an idea I have been working on to initiate the creation of an infinitely expandable accessible data globe: The Panopticom. We are beginning to connect a like-minded group of people who might be able to bring this to life, to allow the world to see itself better and understand more of what’s really going on,’ Peter Gabriel said in an official statement.

Hear the new Peter Gabriel song “Panopticom”

Musically, Panopticom drives along powered by the engine-room of long-time collaborators Tony Levin, David Rhodes and Manu Katché, underpinned by haunting electronics from Brian Eno.

Additional backing vocals from Ríoghnach Connolly of The Breath. The lyric is, in part, inspired by the extraordinary work of three groups, Forensic Architecture, Bellingcat and the Gabriel co-founded pioneering human rights organisation WITNESS.

Gabriel also commented about the idea to release a new song every full moon, saying:

“Some of what I’m writing about this time is the idea that we seem incredibly capable of destroying the planet that gave us birth and that unless we find ways to reconnect ourselves to nature and to the natural world we are going to lose a lot. A simple way of thinking about where we fit in to all of this is looking up at the sky… and the moon has always drawn me to it,” Peter Gabriel said.

Every song will also be accompanied by a exclusive art. The one from “Panopticom” is called “Red Gravity” and it was made by David Spriggs.

“It was the theme of surveillance that connected me with the work of David Spriggs because he’d done a piece relating to that. David does this amazing stuff using many layers of transparencies so you get these strange creations with a real intensity to them.”

“Part of what he does is imagine what art might look like a few years in the future and then try and create accordingly and I think he’s done that very successfully in this particular piece,” Peter Gabriel said.

Besides a succesful solo career since the 70s, Peter Gabriel is also known for being the original vocalist of Genesis.