petergabriel.com

This will be the second year at our new home in Wiltshire's Charlton Park.

It's a fantastic venue in a beautiful location. This year they have very kindly let us have more land and we've put measures in place to improve and enhance the site.

Musically, this is one of the best festivals we've ever had, and I don't always say that. There are very many I want to watch including Orchestra Baobab, Martha Wainwright and the rocking Algerian-French trio, Speed Caravan.

WOMAD is thrilled to announce that Peter Gabriel and Karl Wallinger will be taking part in the In Conversation sessions at this year's WOMAD Charlton Park. They will be playing tracks from upcoming Real World release, Big Blue Ball, and discussing how the project has evolved since its inception in the early '90s.

18 years in the making, Big Blue Ball is an album of wonderful and unexpected musical collaborations between The Holmes Brothers, Billy Cobham, Joseph Arthur, Iarla O'Lionaird, Deep Forest, Hukwe Zawose, Natacha Atlas, Papa Wemba, Sinead O'Connor, Joji Hirota, Guo Yue, Peter Gabriel, Karl Wallinger and more.

You can catch Peter and Karl from 16.15-17.00 on Friday in Little Sicily.

Toumani Diabaté, David D'Or, Celso Alvin from Monobloco, Wasis Diop, and members of Orchestra Baobab and Siyaya are also confirmed for this year's In Conversation sessions.

Get the Big Blue Ball CD in advance of its official release date (on July 28) - on sale in the on-site WOMAD Shop. Plus, buy the WOMAD Souvenir Programme and get a £2-off voucher!

If you've been intrigued by Peter Gabriel and Karl Wallinger's descriptions of Francis Bebey in the Big Blue Ball video and podcasts available on the site, this charming clip is for you.

Peter said of Francis Bebey, "We were hypnotised...he embodied wisdom in lots of ways and it was a real delight". Karl Wallinger, Peter's co-pilot in the Recording Week sessions talks of his amazement at the music Francis produced from his tiny, single note, bamboo flute, describing the sound as "one of the prime numbers of music".

Now available to download - over 23 minutes of music and conversation with Peter Gabriel and Karl Wallinger - featuring excerpts from all the tracks on Big Blue Ball.

We're happy to report that Peter and Meabh are proud parents of a second son.

Luc was born on Saturday 5th July, a bouncing 7lbs 2 oz. Big brother Isaac reports that mother, father and baby brother are all doing well, and requests that any congratulatory flowers people may contemplate sending be left to grow in the ground for all to enjoy.

The Peter Gabriel/Thomas Newman track 'Down To Earth' from the Wall • e soundtrack is now availably on iTunes USA.

You can hear Peter Gabriel, Karl Wallinger and Stephen Hague talking about Big Blue Ball on NPR's 'Weekend Edition Sunday' from the Sunday June 22 show.

"It was just like a musical health farm, really," Wallinger says. "There wasn't any considerations other than the sounds you heard in the room, which were always pretty extraordinary and played by people who had been mastering their instrument in whatever way for however many years. I think the collective musical years that had gone down amongst everybody there would have been well into the thousands."

Peter Gabriel has given has given an exclusive interview to BBC Points West's Amanda Parr.

We'd like to offer our warmest congratulation to Thomas Brooman - co-founder and for 28 years, from 1980 to 2008, Artistic Director of WOMAD, who was awarded the CBE (Commander of The British Empire) in The Queen's Birthday Honors List, "for services to Music and to Charity".

"Pure enthusiasm for music from around the world led us to the idea of WOMAD in 1980 and thus to the first WOMAD festival in 1982. The festivals have always been wonderful and unique occasions and have succeeded in introducing an international audience to many talented artists…. Equally important, the festivals have also allowed many different audiences to gain an insight into cultures other than their own through the enjoyment of music. Music is a universal language, it draws people together and proves, as well as anything, the stupidity of racism."… Peter Gabriel

A free download of 'Burn You Up, Burn You Down' from Big Blue Ball, is now available as a free download from recordstoreday.com

Click on the link below for the latest info about Charlton Park from WOMAD HQ...

Peter Gabriel talks about the future of music in two interview with The Daily Telegraph today.

Peter talks about the mystery of our disappearing servers, the final edit of Pixar's Wall e, music from the Bowers and Wilkins Music Club, new Real World signings Dengue Fever, Big Blue Ball and additions to Real World Remixed.

As our sites begin to re-emerge on the web it's a joy to be able to add some new content, with some initial information on Big Blue Ball - including an interview with Peter Gabriel and Karl Wallinger and a remix pack from the album at Real World Remixed.

Our pack is from the track 'Exit Through You' from the long awaited 'Big Blue Ball', an album recorded over three Real World Recording Weeks, produced by Peter Gabriel and Karl Wallinger and featuring a dizzying array of international musicians. 'Exit Through You' opens with the distinctive vocal of Joseph Arthur with Peter Gabriel joining at the chorus for a funky spiky pop tune accompanied by Karl Wallinger and Justin Adams on guitars. The song was originally put together in a fast and furious live session in just over one hour back in 1995; further production work by Stephen Hague followed and a final mix came from Tchad Blake.

Peter has been included in top 100 in Time magazine's fifth annual list of the world's most influential people: leaders, thinkers, heroes, artists, scientists and more