Peter Gabriel unveils new song "Playing For Time"

07 March 2023, 11:40 | Written by Cerys Kenneally

(News)

(Peter Gabriel)

Peter Gabriel marks the third full moon of the year today (7 March) with new track "Playing For Time", which is also the third preview of his upcoming album i/o.

"Playing For Time" coincides with the March full moon today, and follows previous i/o outings "The Court" and "Panopticom".

Gabriel says of the new song: ""Playing For Time" is a song that I have been working on for a long time and have performed live, without lyrics, so some people may be familiar with it. It’s been an important song for me. It's about time, mortality and memories and the idea that each of us has a planet full of memories which get stashed inside the brain.

"It is more of a personal song about how you assemble memories and whether we are prisoners of time or whether that is something that can actually free us. I do think it’s good to push yourself towards more bold or interesting experiences because then you will have richer memories to feed you when you get to my age. You also get taught by every meaningful experience that you go through."

i/o will be Gabriel's first album of all new music since 2002's Up. Between Up and now, Gabriel did release the cover album Scratch My Back in 2010, and an album of orchestral reworks titled New Blood in 2011.

"Playing For Time" is out now. Peter Gabriel's i/o album is yet to get a release date. He'll play The O2 in London on 19 June. Visit petergabriel.com for tickets.