ARTIST: Peter Gabriel

CREATOR: Steven Askew

SONG: Washing of the Water (live) FROM Secret World Live

Video info:

The live version of Washing Of The Water from the Secret World tour has always been absolutely the definitive version of this song, for me.

The openness of the sound is deep and noble, and offers a profound and perfect hymn-like quality for the emotion of the lyrics.

This video piece features my wife, and was filmed on a remote beach on the west coast of Scotland, in a moment when stillness, reflection and healing were required.

Song info:

Washing of the Water is a track taken from Peter Gabriel's album Secret World Live, released in August 1994.

Words and music by Peter Gabriel. Produced by Peter Gabriel and Peter Walsh.

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

“Secret World Live we were mixing to picture, so we had to make everything “look” right as well as sound good. There was not as much scope for enhancements, and if we did replace or repair anything, we had to be very accurate with the sync to picture. Mixing the Secret World Live show on the road for more than a year, in so many different settings, gave me a unique insight in to how best to represent Peter’s live experience in a recording. I had a very clear understanding of the mood and excitement I wanted to portray.” - Peter Walsh

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