Peter Gabriel has shared new song Live And Let Live, which you can listen to below. It's the twelfth and final track to be released from the upcoming album, i/o, which is released this Friday, Dec 1.
Gabriel has been releasing all of the album's twelve tracks as stand-alone videos or streams, with various mixes and unique artwork from a variety of artists, in addition to performing them all live on is recent European and US tour dates.
Live and Let Live, a song about forgiveness, tolerance and optimism, was the last song to have been written for the i/o and features contributions from many players already heard on other songs, such as Tony Levin, David, Rhodes, Manu Katché, Brian Eno, Melanie Gabriel, John Metcalfe and the New Blood Orchestra.
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"Music can be like a box of mood pills that we can use to treat ourselves and a lot of the work of the Reverberation project is focused on that sort of idea," Gabriel explains. "When someone suggested that forgiveness might be a topic to write about, at first, I thought, ‘that's not interesting to me,’ but then I remembered two things. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was the chair of The Elders and a real mentor for me, led the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in South Africa and that really allowed people to expose, report and maybe feel again some of the horrors of the apartheid era. I remember he always said that listening made a huge difference, just making sure people felt heard and recognized. Then, sometimes, it created a space for forgiveness.
"There's also a description that Nelson Mandela gave when he was released from jail after 27 years in prison and found himself about to become president of South Africa, standing next to some of the people who'd been responsible for keeping him in jail all that time. He said he felt some of the old fear and hatred swelling up inside him but when he thought hard about it, he realized that he needed to find a way to work with these people, to build what he called his rainbow coalition. He needed to feel their humanity and ultimately to find a way to forgive them. He was quite sure that if he couldn't forgive them and find a way to work with them, that he would remain their prisoner for the rest of his days.
"Now, I know if we look at what's happening in the Middle East now or in Ukraine, all sorts of places around the world where there's still violence and brutality, to walk around with a bunch of flowers, preaching forgiveness seems trite and pathetic, maybe. But in the long run, I think people have to find a way. ‘Peace only happens when you respect the rights of others’ is a quote from the Peace University in Costa Rica and I think that's a really important message for me and for my life. You either belong to that hurt or you free yourself and forgiveness is clearly a super effective way of freeing yourself."
i/o is released as two stereo mixes: the Bright-Side Mix, handled by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent, and the Dark-Side Mix, as reshaped by Tchad Blak. A third mix, the Dolby Atmos In-Side Mix, is included in a three-disc set.
i/o will be released on vinyl as a 2 LP Bright Side Mix and 2 LP Dark Side mix, as a 2 CD set featuring both mixes, a 2 CD and Blu-ray set featuring both mixes plus the In-Side mix. A 4 LP, 2 CD and Blu-ray box set, which comes in a casebound book with expanded liner notes and a poster, will be released on March 8.
