Peter Gabriel has announced the release of 'What Lies Ahead' from his forthcoming album, O\i.
The single is titled, 'What Lies Ahead', and akin to previous singles, 'Been Undone' and 'Put Down the Bucket', it arrives on a full moon. Each track from this upcoming album will come in 'Dark-Side', and 'Bright-Side' mixes, with the second mixes arriving during each month's new moon.
In a message, Peter Gabriel spoke about the track's evolution.
"On the Back to Front tour [in 2014], along with 'Playing for Time,' it was one of the songs that was played without words, as a work in progress," he wrote. "The song actually began with a melody that my son Isaac was playing with and I thought, oh, that's really nice - I could build that into something".
"It's a song about inventors and invention. My dad was an electrical engineer, inventor and I saw him go through the frustrations of not only trying to realize an idea, which has to normally go through so many iterations, but then to sell it, both to the people who've got the money and then to the outside world. So, I've always been curious about the creative process and how that applies to inventors".
Gabriel also confirmed that each song from the album will include a unique piece of art, with the cover art for 'What Lies Ahead' will come from artist Judy Chicago's 1982 work, 'Birth Tear/Tear'.
"'Birth Tear / Tear' shows the pain of birth and, clearly, no man will ever have an understanding of what that really is, but giving birth to an idea has many (less painful) parallels," Gabriel wrote. "I'm delighted that she was happy to let us use it".
Elaborating on Chicago's work, Gabriel added: "There’s a wonderful quote where she said that 'truth can be found in the ignored, the forgotten, and the left out,' and it reminds me a little bit of a Gaetano Pesce quote, 'that beauty in the future will lie in the imperfection,' particularly in this robotic AI world in which we are now entering".
"It seems our society is backing away from open-minded thinking," he continued. "The creative arts and universities too, have been preserves for exploring ideas and debate and I hate the moves toward shutting all that down".
