ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Addy Feuerstein

SONG: Here Comes the Flood FROM Peter Gabriel 1

Video info

I always loved this song. When I did some research on it, I read that: “Gabriel envisioned a scenario where the psychic barriers that safeguard one's thoughts would erode and thus manifest in a collective consciousness… he said that the lyrics pertained to the concept of a mental flood where the collective thoughts of other individuals would be made publicly available and accessible through telepathy. He posited that extroverted people would tolerate the situation but believed that those who wished to conceal their thoughts would be unable to adapt.” *

When I read this, I suddenly realized that Peter Gabriel had, in fact, predicted the internet back in 1977!

I mean, this is exactly what we live in now: a collective consciousness network, carried through our smartphones and computers. The psychic barriers that once safeguarded our thoughts are literally melting, and the collective thoughts of individuals are becoming public. We are constantly surrounded by a flood of information, and today’s AI developments are precisely the flood Gabriel envisioned. Only the extroverted can adapt, while those who wish to conceal themselves struggle to survive.

So, I set out to visualize this idea. I start with the concept of a “flood” of information, unfolding the video as an allegory for the digital age. At first, isolated people tune into radio signals that connect into a glowing network, symbolizing the birth of the internet. Soon, the promise of connection spirals into overload: streets flooded with glowing screens, exposed homes, and submerged televisions revealing our private lives on display. The tone shifts to cold analysis as human emotions and relationships are harvested, labeled, and quantified as data. Finally, it culminates in a vast museum of the human mind, where every memory and feeling has been indexed and archived by AI. Yet, like a new Noah’s Ark, humanity begins to build again from the wreckage, building new bridges among them, closing with Gabriel’s haunting reminder: “Wake up, dreamers, you’re running dry.”

The entire clip was created using AI tools:
Imaging: Midjourney
Image editing: Nano Banana, FLUX Kontext, Photoshop

Enhancing & upscaling: Magnific, Krea
Animation: Kling
Video editing: Premiere

* Wikipedia, “Here Comes the Flood (song)”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_Comes_the_Flood_(song)

Song info:

Here Comes the Flood is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's first solo album, released inFebruary 1977.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Bob Ezrin for My Own Production Co Ltd.

Published by Real World Music Ltd. / Sony Music Publishing.

‘When I wrote this song I had an obsession with short-wave radio and I was always amazed at the way in which the radio signals would become stronger as daylight faded. I felt as if all energy levels would also increase in the night. I had a dream in which the barriers which normally prevent us from seeing into each other had been completely eroded, producing a mental flood of information. Those that had been used to having their innermost thoughts exposed would handle this torrent and those inclined to concealment would drown in it.’ - pg

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Lamson

SONG: Washing of the Water FROM Us

Video info:

‘The brilliance of his beloved’s final smile haunts him and wounds him, yet something carries him on.’
- Lamson

Song info:

Washing of the Water is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album Us, released in September 1992.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Daniel Lanois and Peter Gabriel.

Published by Real World Music Ltd. / Sony Music Publishing.

“The groove reminded me a bit of Holiday Inn cabaret music, with a quite dated feel, but I went with it anyway. It works particularly well with the sequencing of the record, the way it leads into Digging In The Dirt.”

-pg

ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Marc Engenhart

SONG: Four Kinds of Horses (Dark-Side Mix) FROM i/o

Video info:

These two videos should be seen as one. A diptych which was inspired by the outstanding concept of the i/o album with its dark and bright-side mixes of each song. This perfectly made and delightful work, shaping the same composition into different perspectives as two different journeys into one song, highly resonated with me to create a vision giving those two mixes two visual views as two perspectives into a synthetic natural world which is almost the same but different.

They were realised by an informed, intelligent system which was precisely briefed to create my artistic vision in a custom framework. By this system, I created a text script proposal on visual scenes which are initially based on Peter Gabriel’s original lyrics and rewrite them correlating my brief. This brief included precisely picked and curated descriptions of literary figures, poets, philosophers, directors, painters, sculptors, visionaries, technologies, film materials, and an aesthetic framework, which I had in mind to brief how the synthetic scenes should basically look. This visual script let the system output two versions as two dimensions, two visual perspectives which we as humans can resonate and contemplate us in.

When you perceive the synthetic images of just pure natural scapes and views with the empowerment of the sound and Gabriel’s original readable lyrics, there is not only the bright and dark visual interpretation but also a highly sensitive layer of empathy and individual perception and interpretation. This empathy pattern is precisely rendered into any frame by a so-to-speak empathy module which can trigger semantics in human perception for the bright version and for the dark version. You will perceive this immaterial layer differently in both versions. It’s highly sensitive. You will feel the vibration; it’s coming out of the ground.

Song info:

Four Kinds of Horses is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album i/o, released on 1 December 2024. This is the Dark-Side Mix, by Tchad Blake.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Peter Gabriel and Richard Russell.

Published by Real World Music Ltd. / Sony Music Publishing.

“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 into his studio to explore some ideas with him. 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 to his satisfaction, so it lay 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 much better chorus.

I was working with Katie May in the studio one day and she put together a sort of trip hop vibe which I liked a lot. I felt it belonged and had an attitude, that led me into this other place. Then we grew a lot of different textures and the song evolved into a very different being.

It’s a little different from the rest of the album but I think it's got a strong character.”

-pg