On Saturday 3 January, Peter announced his new album o\i with the release of a new song called Been Undone;
‘I’m delighted to say that at the full moon, we will be beginning another year of full moon releases under the name o\i. The songs are a mix of thoughts and feelings.
I have been thinking about the future and how we might respond to it. We are sliding into a period of transition like no other, most likely triggered in three waves; AI, quantum computing and the brain computer interface. Artists have a role to look into the mists and, when they catch sight of something, to hold up a mirror.
With each full moon of 2026 a new song from o\i will be released, revealing the whole album at the end of the year.
Each song will come with differing interpretations in the shape of Dark-Side and Bright-Side mixes. The second mix will be released each month on the new moon and once again, Tchad Blake and Mark ‘Spike’ Stent will be handling the mixing duties, taking on the Dark-Side and Bright-Side respectively.
April – Pink Moon
Till Your Mind Is Shining
LISTEN HERE
‘The song began around a chord sequence which I liked and which felt quite poppy and playful, so I just kept on playing around with it till I had something. Of all the songs that I’ve written for i/o and o\i this is probably the poppiest for me.
It takes me back to my schooldays, in some ways, because before there was Genesis we were effectively trying to be songwriters more than musicians – pop songs or soul / R&B songs. I think this song connects me back to some of those roots and the sort of thing that I was working on then and trying to master.
Some elements of this are a few years old, I mean pretty much most things I work on take a while to mature. I leave songs for a while and go and do something else and when I come back to them and they smell alive, I will want to complete them. I really enjoyed singing this one, particularly the end, and I think the band had a good time playing it too. You can hear some wonderful performances from all the band. It was really a fun thing to create.
I’ve always been fascinated by explorations of consciousness and attempts to understand from where it originated, along with all the recent investigations into animal and plant sentience.
In some ways it’s about opening up the mind and stepping inside to understand a little more of ourselves and the world we live in with the hope that we respond a little more responsibly and compassionately.’
March – Blood / Worm Moon
What Lies Ahead
LISTEN HERE
‘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.’
‘This month’s artwork is from the legendary feminist artist, Judy Chicago. ‘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. I’m delighted that she was happy to let us use it.’
‘Judy Chicago employed over 150 people working to her designs from 1980-1985, all on the subject of birth as she felt that Western culture had not really tackled birth as a proper subject matter. This particular design was embroidered by Jane Thompson in Houston, Texas and it’s a really strong piece.’
February – Snow Moon
Put the Bucket Down
LISTEN HERE
‘As a side project, I am working on a show with the brain as the central core and there are a number of songs, some on i/o and some on o\i that will be part of that. This is one of those and it’s a point in the narrative where we can both read and write thoughts and the person singing is not sure whether he has his own thoughts or not. Is he inside his own mind or inside someone else’s? The ‘bucket’ is all the crap that goes around our head all the time, so it is putting the bucket down to find your way forward…’
‘I’m delighted this month that we have an artwork created by Tomás Saraceno and 12 spiders who are credited with authorship on this. This work, integrating with nature and co-creating with spiders is fascinating. I think it’s a beautiful thing and somehow there seems to be a connection with webs and nature and the brain, so for me, it fits right in. In this case, Tomás heard the music and chose this image as something that he thought was appropriate.’
January – Wolf Moon
Been Undone
LISTEN HERE
‘The first artwork is a special piece from Janaina Mello Landini. The way she takes the rope and moves it out, unravelling it, is almost like fractals or tree trunks and looks like the brain in some ways too, so I see a lot of entry points.
I am delighted that Janaina is willing to participate and be part of the process. We are using one of her existing images for this month to open the whole proceedings but I’m excited that she’s now going to create a piece, especially for the song. That always gives it a little more excitement from my end to see what’s going to come up. Please do check out her work.’