“One week in the middle of summer this craziness exploded in our Real World Studios. We had this week of invited guests, people from all around the world, fed by music and a 24 hour café. It was a giant playpen, a bring your own studio party. There’d be a studio set up on the lawn, in the garage, in someone’s bedroom as well as the seven rooms we had available. We were curators of sorts of all this living mass. We had poets and songwriters there, people would come in and scribble things down, they’d hook up in the café. It was like a dating agency, then they’d disappear into the darkness and make noises – and we’d be there to record it.” – Peter Gabriel, producer and performer

Last week marked the release of Peter Gabriel’s long-awaited Big Blue Ball on Real World Records. As the above quote describes, the music contained on the record is indeed a melting pot of sound featuring Sinead O’Connor, Vernon Reid, Tim Finn, and Joseph Arthur.

Picked up on a good recommendation and stunning cover art, it really is like “listening to the planet from outer space.” Interest Peaked? I’ll direct you here and here for an in-depth look at the recording process and its history.

Myspace: Big Blue Ball
MP3: Joseph Arthur, Peter Gabriel, Karl Wallinger – “Exit Through You”

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