Ten years after releasing his last solo album, Us, Peter Gabriel has released the equally minimalist Up.

Preparing to embark on his equally long-awaited tour of America, the former Genesis front man said he had taken longer than he planned to release the album.

"I enjoy the process of making music better than being a travelling salesman," he admitted to BBC World Service's The Music Biz programme.

"The album tended to drift a little further than I had intended... and I think in part I have been avoiding getting into it."

Inspiration

The story behind the making of Up will come as little surprise to those music critics who have previously described Gabriel as "highbrow" and a "perfectionist".

Despite it's positive title, Gabriel concedes that the new album includes some "miserable" songs

He began recording, what has been described as "a complex listen", in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, transferred to a studio in the French Alps before being swept away in a floating studio down the Amazon.

Aware that his focus is prone to wander, the 52- year-old musician explained the importance of drawing creative energy from a range of collaborations and experiences.

"Often when you are making a record you are spewing stuff out and unless you have input, how can you expect it to be interesting or have any new things to reflect on," he said.

Intense

After sifting through more than 130 song ideas, Gabriel finally committed to 10 album tracks.

Critics have described the finished album as "intense" and "dark", and by including titles such as I Grieve and No Way Out, the artist admits that some of the songs are "pretty miserable".

"I've always found it harder to write happy music than sad music," he explained.

However, "personally I am in a good place at the moment and I think I am more "up" than on the previous couple of albums".

Despite the album taking a long time to make, the past decade has seen Gabriel far from idle.

Gabriel rocked the Dome

Conceding that he "tends to get attracted to detours", the man behind the WOMAD music and arts festivals and the Real World recording studios, has kept himself busy with a range of diverse projects during the last 10 years.

He composed Ovo, the ambient accompaniment to the acrobatic show that was staged daily at London's Millennium Dome.

He has released CDs such as Long Walk Home (his soundtrack album for the movie Rabbit Proof Fence) as well as collaborating with artists as diverse as Youssou N'Dour and the Afro Celt Sound System.

Tour

Having recently performed live in Paris, Gabriel will soon take to the highways of America for a short tour, showcasing the new album.

The band has been rehearsing at Gabriel's holiday home in Sardinia for the past month and is about to start full production rehearsals in the UK before heading for the US.

"All we need now is the fuel and that comes from performance," said Gabriel.

"We're 90% there with the parts. Now we need to get the magic in."

Working with Canadian director Robert Lepage - who designed The Secret World Tour in 1993 - plans are in place to dazzle audiences with a show split between two stages - representing Heaven and Earth or Up and Down.

Of his slow return to the spotlight Gabriel commented: "I have been very fortunate in that I don't have to put out a record if I don't want to.

"I do it when I feel it is ready and when I feel ready to go out into the world again."