Box is a small village in south west England. Just over three thousand people live there.

It may be a tiny village -- but musicians from around the globe go there to play. They often arrive with an invitation to record at a place called Real World Studios. The owner and resident musician is Peter Gabriel.

He's produced a new album out called Big Blue Ball. It features many of his guests...as well as himself.

That's Peter Gabriel singing on the track "Whole Thing." Big Blue Ball is a project that Gabriel nursed along for over a decade. The music was recorded during a series of impromptu jam sessions at Real World Studios.

Gabriel says each time, the goal was to make his musical guests comfortable.

GABRIEL: I think people relax near the countryside. We try and make it homey rather than cool or trendy. Ultimately, a studio's about capturing performance. We've got the technology and the people to do it, but the performance is the thing we have to work at hard creating the optimum situation to enhance. That may involve in getting the food right, the environment, just communicating well with people. It's a subtler process than people imagine.