What Lies Ahead

The blood / worm moon of 3 March, 2026 sees the release of What Lies Ahead, the third track from Peter Gabriel’s forthcoming album o\i.

What Lies Ahead was written and produced by Peter Gabriel and the first version to be heard is the Bright-Side Mix by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent.

On the Back to Front tour, along with Playing for Time, it was one of the songs that was played without words, as a work in progress. The song actually began with a melody that my son Isaac was playing with and I thought, oh, that’s really nice – I could build that into something.

On that tour, we had our wonderful Scandinavian contingent of Jennie Abrahamson and
Linnea Olsson who was also playing cello. I’d always liked Linnea’s cello line so it ended up on this final recording. John Metcalfe added some other elements for the orchestral sessions in 2022. 

There is also more of the magnificent Orphei Drängar choir, another Scandinavian element, who also featured on This Is Home on the i/o record. It’s a very strange mood that they create, powerful and emotional and it’s a great way to start a song – which was Brian Eno’s suggestion. I’ve always liked spiritual, inspirational music because sometimes people get to a different place when they remove themselves and are just present with this feeling of something else out there. Although I’m not religious myself, I definitely have the feeling for it and that’s what I was hoping we would have with the choir at the front, that you go straight away into this other world…

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 art comes from Judy Chicago and her work Birth Tear / Tear (1982).

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.

There’s a wonderful quote where she said that ‘truth can be found in the ignored, the forgotten, and the left out,’ and it reminds me a little bit of a Gaetano Pesce quote, ‘that beauty in the future will lie in the imperfection,’ particularly in this robotic AI world in which we are now entering. It seems our society is backing away from open-minded thinking. The creative arts and universities too, have been preserves for exploring ideas and debate and I hate the moves toward shutting all that down.

Tchad Blake’s Dark-Side Mix of What Lies Ahead will be released later in the month, on the new moon.

Words and Music by Peter Gabriel
Published by Real World Music Ltd / Sony Music Publishing

Orchestral arrangement by John Metcalfe, with Peter Gabriel
Choir arrangement by Dom Shaw, with Peter Gabriel
Engineering by Oli Jacobs, Katie May, Dom Shaw, Richard Chappell
Assistant engineering by Faye Dolle, Dom Shaw
Additional engineering by Stefano Amerio
Orchestral engineering by Lewis Jones
Orchestral assistant engineering by Tom Coath, Luie Stylianou

Produced by Peter Gabriel
Mixed by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent
Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios
Recorded at Real World Studios, Bath and The Beehive, London, British Grove, London, ArteSuono Studio, Cavalicco (UD), British Grove, London, Alfvénsalen, Uppsala, Sweden
Cover: Birth Tear / Tear (1982) by Judy Chicago

Bass – Tony Levin
Trumpet – Paolo Fresu
Cello – Linnea Olsson
Violin – Everton Nelson, Richard George, Natalia Bonner, Cathy Thompson, Debbie Widdup, Odile Ollagnon, Ian Humphries, Louisa Fuller, Martin Burgess, Clare Hayes, Charles Mutter, Marianne Hayne
Viola – Bruce White, Rachel Roberts, Fiona Bonds, Peter Lale
Cello – Ian Burdge, Caroline Dale, Tony Woollard, Chris Worsey, William Schofield, Chris Allan
Double bass – Chris Laurence, Lucy Shaw, Stacey Watton
Choir – Orphei Drängar
Backing vocals – Peter Gabriel
Vocals – Peter Gabriel

P&C 2026 Peter Gabriel Ltd