Big Blue Ball is an album by multiple artists which grew from "recording weeks" at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in the early 1990s.

In production for more than 15 years, "Big Blue Ball" is a project featuring several artists from all around the world working together. According to Gabriel, the initial recording was finished in three years during the early '90s, but "the tapes were left in a mess and it's taken this long to sort out." Producer Stephen Hague was finally called in to sort out the project.

Guests on the album include Sinéad O'Connor, Karl Wallinger (of World Party), Natacha Atlas, and Papa Wemba. Gabriel takes the lead vocals on several tracks on the album. A mix of western, African, and Asian musicians are also included.

Big Blue Ball was launched in America thanks to a venture-capital trust initiative. Bosses at London-based firm Ingenious raised more than $4 million (GBP 2 million) to help promote the release in the US. The venture capitalists, Gabriel, and his Real World Limited partners, created a new joint venture company, High Level Recordings Limited, to oversee the release of the album. The new album deal covers the North America territory, where Gabriel is currently out of contract. The worldwide distribution of the album will be dealt by Proper Music Distribution.

The first track released from the project was Whole Thing, included on the soundtrack album for the TV series Long Way Down. A version of Burn You Up, Burn You Down was also included on Gabriel's 2003 compilation album Hit with a radio edit released as a single.

There are two CD editions of the album with different covers, the music is the same on both.

A limited edition of 1000 copies of the album was released on blue vinyl, from Ryko Distribution.

Track listing

1. "Whole Thing (Original Mix)" (featuring Francis Bebey, Alex Faku, Tim Finn, Peter Gabriel, Karl Wallinger, Andy White)
2. "Habibe" (featuring Natacha Atlas, Hossam Ramzy, Neil Sparkes)
3. "Shadow" (featuring Juan Cañizares, Papa Wemba)
4. "altus silva" (featuring Joseph Arthur, Ronan Browne, Deep Forest, James McNally, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Vernon Reid)
5. "Exit Through You" (featuring Joseph Arthur, Peter Gabriel, Karl Wallinger)
6. "Everything Comes From You" (featuring Richard Evans, Joji Hirota, Sevara Nazarkhan, Sinead O’Connor, Guo Yue)
7. "Burn You Up, Burn You Down" (featuring Billy Cobham, Peter Gabriel, The Holmes Brothers, Wendy Melvoin, Arona N’diaye, Jah Wobble)
8. "Forest" (featuring Levon Minassian, Arona N’Diaye, Vernon Reid, Hukwe Zawose)
9. "Rivers" (featuring Vernon Reid, Márta Sebestyén, Karl Wallinger)
10. "Jijy" (featuring Arona N’Diaye, Rossy, Jah Wobble)
11. "Big Blue Ball" (featuring Peter Gabriel, Manu Katché, Karl Wallinger)

Miscellanea

Track 4, altus silva, is Latin for Deep Forest whose members (Eric Mouquet and Michel Sanchez) provided the keyboards for the piece.

Links

Official Site : Big Blue Ball at Realworld Records

Interview with Peter Gabriel, Stephen Hague and Karl Wallinger from NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday"

References