Peter Gabriel releases new song “The Court”

The ex-Genesis vocalist Peter Gabriel promissed last January that he would release every full moon a new song of his upcoming album “i/o”. So he just released “The Court (Dark-Side Mix)”, the second song revealed of his new record.

“I had this idea for ‘the court will rise’ chorus, so it became a free-form, impressionistic lyric that connected to justice, but there’s a sense of urgency there. A lot of life is a struggle between order and chaos and in some senses the justice or legal system is something that we impose to try and bring some element of order to the chaos.”

“That’s often abused, it’s often unfair and discriminatory but at the same time it’s probably an essential part of a civilised society. But we do need to think sometimes about how that is actually realised and employed,” Peter Gabriel said in an official statement.

Hear the new Peter Gabriel song “The Court”

Written and produced by Peter Gabriel, The Court was recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire and The Beehive in London, and features contributions from Brian Eno alongside Tony Levin, David Rhodes and Manu Katché, as well as backing vocals from Peter’s daughter Melanie Gabriel.

The orchestral arrangement is by John Metcalfe with Peter Gabriel and was recorded at British Grove Studios in London with a number of players who previously featured in the New Blood Orchestra.

The song is partly inspired by the work of NAMATI whose mission is to provide people around the world access to justice they may not otherwise be able to afford. ‘I recommend you check them out,’ says Gabriel. ‘They do a brilliant job assembling teams around the world to help with different issues.’