Four Kinds of Horses

Four Kinds of Horses is the fifth song to be released from Peter’s forthcoming album i/o. First-up this month, released on 5 May, is the Bright-Side Mix by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent.

Written by Peter Gabriel and produced by Peter Gabriel and Richard Russell, Four Kinds of Horses was recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire, The Beehive and Copper House in London.

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.

There were a number of things that triggered ideas for the song as it developed, including the Buddhist parable of the Four Kinds of Horses, which describes different ways a student can approach their spiritual practice.There is also a focus on “the interesting overlap of religion and peace on the one hand and violence and terrorism on the other. There was also a wonderful film by Hany Abu-Assad called ‘Paradise Now’ which shows two young men who end up being trained to become terrorists and it’s a real insight into where the head goes.”

As well as Russell, who set things in motion, Four Kinds of Horses also features Brian Eno on synths which “sounded like electric worms to me,” says Gabriel. “As soon as I heard one I thought they would make a great three dimensional wall paper of sound and asked Brian to create eleven more.” John Metcalfe again provides string arrangements, “beautiful work and as the song progresses, the strings play a key role” and backing vocals from Peter’s daughter Melanie, “another lovely moment for a dad.”

Continuing the theme of working with a different artist for each song release, this month’s track is accompanied by a cover image featuring the work of Cornelia Parker.

This month we have a fascinating artist, Cornelia Parker, who does some extraordinary work. When we were originally looking at the Art from Us project, I’d seen some of her stuff with exploding rooms and had been fascinated by that, so I’m really happy that she agreed to work with us on this. The photogravure technique of William Henry Fox Talbot was an inspiration for her in this piece, and some of the other glass-based images in the series. I fell in love with this particular work – it’s called ‘Snap.’

Just like the previous full moon releases, Four Kinds of Horses comes with differing mix approaches from Mark ‘Spike’ Stent (Bright-Side Mix), released on 5 May. Tchad Blake (Dark-Side Mix) and Hans-Martin Buff’s Atmos mix (In-Side Mix), released on 21 May.

-CREDITS-
Words and Music by Peter Gabriel
Engineering by Oli Jacobs, Katie May
Additional engineering by John Foyle
Assistant engineering by Faye Dolle, Dom Shaw
Orchestral engineering Lewis Jones
Orchestral assistant engineering by Tom Coath, Luie Stylianou
Pre-production enginneering by Dickie Chappell
Produced by Peter Gabriel and Richard Russell
Bright-Side Mix by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent
Dark-Side Mix by Tchad Blake
Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis
In-Side Mix: 3D Audio sound treatments and Dolby Atmos mix by Hans-Martin Buff in the Red Room at Real World Studios & Aural Majority Pad, Boofland. Additional recording assistance from Bob Mackenzie, Louis Rogove
Recorded at Real World Studios, Bath, The Beehive, London, Copper House, London and British Grove, London
Cover: Snap by Cornelia Parker

Rhythm Programming: Katie May, Oli Jacobs, Peter Gabriel
Rhythm Progressing: Brian Eno
Percussion: Peter Gabriel
Filtered Percussion: Richard Russell
Bass: Tony Levin
Guitar: David Rhodes
Piano: Peter Gabriel, Oli Jacobs
Synths: Peter Gabriel
Electric Worms and Additional Synths: Brian Eno
BVs: Melanie Gabriel, Peter Gabriel
LVs: Peter Gabriel

Orchestral Arrangement: John Metcalfe with Peter Gabriel
Violins: Everton Nelson, Ian Humphries, Louisa Fuller, Charles Mutter, Cathy Thompson, Natalia Bonner, Richard George, Marianne Haynes, Martin Burgess, Clare Hayes, Debbie Widdup, Odile Ollagnon
Violas: Bruce White, Fiona Bonds, Peter Lale, Rachel Roberts
Cellos: Ian Burdge, Chris Worsey, Caroline Dale, William Schofield, Tony Woollard, Chris Allan
Double bass: Chris Laurence, Stacy Watton, Lucy Shaw
French horn: David Pyatt
Tenor Trombone: Andy Wood, Tracy Holloway
Bass Trombone: Richard Henry
Tuba: David Powell
Orchestra Conductor: John Metcalfe
Orchestra Leader: Everton Nelson
Sheet Music Supervisor: Dave Foster
Orchestra Contractor: Lucy Whalley and Susie Gillis for Isobel Griffiths Ltd