Peter Gabriel Delivers New Single ‘Four Kinds Of Horses’ Featuring Brian Eno

Peter Gabriel shared “Four Kinds of Horses (Bright-Side Mix),” a new single featuring Brian Eno on synthesizers. The track previews Gabriel’s long-awaited, forthcoming new album, i/o.

Like previously shared i/o singles, Gabriel issued “Four Kinds Of Horses” to coincide with the full moon, in this case, the flower full moon. Inspired in part by the Buddhist parable of the Four Kinds Of Horses, Gabriel co-produced “Four Kinds Of Horses” with Richard Russell during recording sessions at Real World Studios in Wiltshire and The Beehive and Copper House in London.

Gabriel detailed the genesis of the song, explaining:

“‘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 in to 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 laid 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.”

Gabriel also described recording Eno’s synths, which Gabriel said “sounded like electric worms.”

“As soon as I heard one,” Gabriel said, “I thought they would make a great three-dimensional wallpaper of sound and asked Brian to create eleven more.”

“Four Kinds of Horses” also features Gabriel’s daughter Melanie Gabriel on backing vocals and John Metcalfe’s string arrangements

Peter Gabriel will soon begin a tour of North America solo for the first time since 2012. Check out the i/o Tour dates and ticket info: