While British singer Peter Gabriel mastered the art of performance and creativity as frontman for the rock band Genesis, his specialties expanded after he left the band in 1975 to begin a solo career. The singer’s solo albums continued Gabriel’s success as he became heavily involved in activism and multimedia, where he participated in a 1986 tour on behalf of Amnesty International and advocates for technology as another creative outlet for artists to use.
Peter Gabriel has written and recorded a new song for Words With Gods.
The “Solsbury Hill” singer will also compose the score for the anthology film, which comprises nine fiction shorts concerning religion and spirituality. His music will accompany not the short films, producer Lucas Akoskin says, but the hand-drawn animations interspersed between them to tie the film together.
Gabriel’s new track will close the film as “a final message,” Akoskin says.
PHOTOS: Scores That Rock: 10 Musicians Who Crossed Over to Movies
No stranger to film music, the singer snagged an Oscar nomination for his track “Down to Earth,” written for Wall-E (though he pulled out of performing to protest the shortening of the song for the ceremony.) The score will be Gabriel’s first for a feature since Phillip Noyce’s 2002 Rabbit-Proof Fence. Previously, Gabriel had written the music for 1989’s The Last Temptation of Christ, for which he would win a Grammy Award.
Words With Gods features shorts from international directors including Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay!), Hideo Nakata (the Japanese The Ring films) and Guillermo Arriaga (The Burning Plain), curated by Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in literature. It is slated for 2014 commercial release.
STORY: Peter Gabriel Boards ‘Words With Gods’
The film is the first installment in the Heartbeat of the World series, which will include three more anthologies focused on social issues: Encounters, on sexuality; Into the Bloodstream, about drugs; and Polis, on global politics.
Akoskin says he and producers Arriaga and Alex Garcia plan to incorporate a new track from a singer-songwriter in each film.
Encounters is scheduled for release in late 2014 or early 2015, Akoskin says, with Into the Bloodstream and then Polis to follow.
Twitter: @THRMusic
