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THE PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA

Eclectic Prog • United Kingdom


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The Penguin Cafe Orchestra biography
THE PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA, a considerably eclectic musical ensemble, first came to band founder Simon Jeffes in the form of a dream-like vision. Jeffes, an English-born multi-instrumentalsit and composer, came up with the idea to compose music that suited the imagery and mood of the dream he experienced. By the time the moment had passed, he had a clear idea of where to go musically, and a poem that seemed to have fallen into his lap with no effort: ''I am the proprietor of the Penguin Cafe. I will tell you things at random.''

Along with cellist Helen Liebmann, Jeffes formed the band that came to be referred to as PCO in 1973. While many different lineups were tried out over the course of the band's career, there never really was one set group of musicians that would be considered the core lineup. Simon Jeffes composed most of the music himself. In 1976, the group's first studio album, ''Music From The Penguin Cafe'', was released by Brian Eno on his experimental label, Obscure Records. The album has seen several subsequent re-issues since then, and is still readily available.

The large list of members The Penguin Cafe Orchestra had seen over its lifespan have all performed and recorded with a very diverse bunch of musicians including Jeff Beck, Paul McCartney, Caravan, Bob Geldof, Camel, and so on. The group took influences from all of those fellow artists and more, creating one of the most diverse musical atmospheres for them to write and record within. The future seemed bright. That potential for greatness may have never been fully realized, however, for tragic circumstances halted the band's growth on December 11, 1997. On this day, Simon Jeffes died of an inoperable brain tumor.

In total, The Penguin Cafe Orchestra released only five proper studio albums, one EP, and a handful of live recordings, including a full ballet entitled ''Still Life at the Penguin Cafe'', composed entirely by Jeffes. The ever-changing, ever-evolving sound and presentation of the ensemble's music led to multiple types of audience outreach and support. Fans of all types of music have found something to love about the group's output over the years. They have been labeled as everything from Chamber Jazz, to Experimental Folk, to Avant-Garde Rock music and Neo-Classical, and everything in-between. All of the styles and influences are seamlessly weaved throughout the group's catalogue to create a very rich listening experience rivaled by few.

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THE PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA discography


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THE PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

3.87 | 43 ratings
Music From The Penguin Cafe
1976
4.11 | 46 ratings
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
1981
3.98 | 24 ratings
Broadcasting From Home
1984
3.80 | 15 ratings
Signs Of Life
1987
3.27 | 11 ratings
Union Cafe
1993

THE PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

3.25 | 9 ratings
When In Rome
1988
3.50 | 4 ratings
"Still Life" at the Penguin Cafe
1990
4.17 | 6 ratings
Concert Program
1995

THE PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

THE PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

4.29 | 8 ratings
A Brief History
2001
4.00 | 3 ratings
A History
2001

THE PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

5.00 | 1 ratings
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra Mini Album
1983

THE PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Music From The Penguin Cafe by PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA, THE album cover Studio Album, 1976
3.87 | 43 ratings

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Music From The Penguin Cafe
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra Eclectic Prog

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

4 stars Multi-instrumentalist Simon Jeffes is joined by a collection of guests on eclectic backing instruments for this weird, occasionally folk-tinged slice of abstract avant-garde art-muzak. Presenting chamber music with no apparent connection to any pre-existing musical tradition, in retrospect (thanks in part to the Penguin Cafe's early championing by Brian Eno) we can see this as a sort of mellow, more acoustically-oriented cousin to the sort of ambient pop that Eno and Brand X cooked up on Another Green World. Minimalistic, yes, but never boring, the Penguin Cafe flock are always doing something interesting which sounds like little before or since. Followers of the more abstract jazz, folk, or pop tendencies will likely find it worth their time.
 Music From The Penguin Cafe by PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA, THE album cover Studio Album, 1976
3.87 | 43 ratings

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Music From The Penguin Cafe
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra Eclectic Prog

Review by siLLy puPPy
Special Collaborator PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic

4 stars Musical projects come together in strange ways and inspiration emanates from just as many bizarre encounters in life but amongst one of the stranger bands with an even stranger origin is the hard to classify PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA which was conjured up when the founder Simon Jeffes was on vacation in the south of France in 1972-73 and got food poisoning from rancid shellfish. He spent several days in a delirious fever and had visions or nightmares rather of a future where everyone lived in big concrete buildings and spent their lives gazing into screens with cameras in everyone's rooms spying on them. In this same vision there were other choices and down a dusty road there was an alternative reality where an old building offered a refuge from the George Orwellian had finally taken over completely. The unique sanctuary space was called the PENGUIN CAFE and after that disillusive experience Jeffes would create the ORCHESTRA part of the equation to provide entertainment for all the desperate souls trying to escape the cookie cutter approach of musical composition.

Many of these visions stemmed from the fact that Jeffes was not only disenchanted with the rigidity of the classical music world but also sought refuge from the ostensive limitations of the popular rock universe. He became extremely attracted to various ethnic musical sources as well as the spirit and immediacy of folk music and began this new band with cellist Helen Liebmann to create a bizarre blend of modern classical music fused with instrumental folk, psychedelia (including electronica) and avant-pop. After finding a couple more musicians with Steve Nye adding electric piano and Gavyn Wright providing the violin, Jeffes spent the next few years constructing compositions for his new style of music and which caught the attention of Brian Eno who released the first album MUSIC FROM THE PENGUIN CAFE on his Obscure record label which depicts the scenes of a PENGUIN and human visitor with a mask on who was evidently attempting to escape that Big Brother dystopia that the world had become, a scene that reprises throughout the band's discography.

While PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA seems to be primarily based in an ethnic and sometimes gypsy folk type of sound, it really ventures into many different musical arenas. While the first track "Penguin Cafe Single" sounds as if it's the theme song for the journey into the musical refuge that finds its way around a cello and violin based pop melody with excursions into folk and psychedelic territory, the true gem follows immediately with the seven piece suite "Zopf" which adds the additional musical contributions of Neil Rennie on ukelele and Emily Young providing the only vocal performances on the album. This multilayered suite takes a journey into an eclectic musical ride that begins with a melodic mellow rock and ska piece and continues to create an ever stranger soundscape as it ventures into avant-folk, lugubrious violin-drenched modern classical, an avant-prog type vocal sequence titled "Milk," a traditional sounding avant-opera, a "La Bamba" type of Latin rhythm and ends in a slow dreamy psychedelic build up of hypnotic electronic sounds that become more and more discordant with atonal counterpoints and an ominous atmosphere that sounds like something the electronic band Coil would delve into.

The following three tracks are quite "normal" sounding after the wild ride of "Zopf" ending the album with a more lighthearted chamber folk type of sound. The band would garner enough attention to score a supporting gig for Kraftwerk in 1976 and despite never really becoming a household name has remained somewhat of a cult anomaly favorite in the underground music world. A strange album this is indeed because every time you think you can pigeonhole it into some sort of specific genre it adds some sort of contradictory elements that take you somewhere you've never been before. MUSIC FROM THE PENGUIN CAFE does very much evoke the strange conditions in which the inspiration emanated from. It has a dreamy psychedelic quality to it with a fuzzy notion of what reality should be with rhythms and cadences that sound somewhat familiar but so very different from anything else around them. The album never really gets aggressive and remains firmly chilled out never turning the heat up above simmer but what it achieves is creating a surreal folky chamber music pot of quirkiness. A very interesting folk based album with the exquisite "Zopf" suite being the cream of the crop.

 Broadcasting From Home by PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA, THE album cover Studio Album, 1984
3.98 | 24 ratings

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Broadcasting From Home
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra Eclectic Prog

Review by Matti
Prog Reviewer

4 stars Ever heard of this band? It's nothing less than one of the most boundary-free musical visions of the last 50 years, and its instrumental music is simply impossible to pigeonhole into one specific genre. Is it chamber jazz? Is it neo-classical? New Age or Ambient? World Music? Folk? It is everything of those, and none especially, thus deserving the tag Eclectic Prog. PCO made five studio albums between 1976 and 1993. The leader, composer and multi-instrumentalist Simon Jeffes died of brain tumor in 1997. Instead of being criminally unknown, he should be remembered as a great musical individualist, like a Brian Eno coming from the world of Art Music. In ProgArchives this is only the seventh review for PCO. Is it a rare case of "best kept secret" or just music that fails to raise strong interest among progheads? Again, I think the answer lies somewhere in-between.

This third studio album is the the only one I've heard entirely. As well I could have chosen the compilation titled Brief History, the other cd I borrowed from a library in 2012. I have to admit, I haven't listened to my homemade disc very often. Now that I do, I can only wonder why is it so. It's not over-intelligent or dryly academic music for which is hard to find a suitable mood. The overall atmosphere is rather calm and relaxed, with equal measures of fresh playfulness and thoughtful intimacy. Simon Jeffes' piano, guitar and harmonium (etc.) are accompanied by violin, viola and cello, plus the pop-oriented set and some more unusual, folky instruments such as ukelele. The allmusic review says that brass was used for the first time on this PCO album which was recorded over three years' time.

I'm not going into track-by-track details. I sincerely hope that you who aren't already aware of PCO will find out yourself how this charming mixture of chamber music, modern European chamber jazz, ambientish approach and World-flavoured pop will appeal to your taste. For further references I could drop names like Jade Warrior, Brian Eno (& David Byrne), Gavin Bryars, Flairck, Anthony Phillips, Eberhard Weber, Arild Andersen. The next time you spot an album cover featuring peculiar penguin-people... Get it!

 When In Rome by PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA, THE album cover Live, 1988
3.25 | 9 ratings

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When In Rome
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra Eclectic Prog

Review by Lewian
Prog Reviewer

3 stars In principle I think that it'd be good to rate every album against what it tries to achieve (plus probably some reflection on whether this is a worthwhile aim), and to try hard to appreciate its merits and what it is about, rather than just giving marks according to personal taste. But even if I guess what the album tries to achieve and to whom this could appeal, my personal point of view gets in the way. We can never be objective, can we?

I'm pretty sure that "When in Rome" is a very good album. It presents live recordings of a nice collection of the PCO's songs from a certain period of the band. Live albums apparently have something of a bad reputation on this site, but the sound of this one is wonderful, almost of studio quality, even somewhat more dynamic, as is typical for good live albums, although this one is rather close to the studio sound of the band - and the audience helps by being very civilised. It is also very well played. For those who don't know, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra plays friendly instrumental "miniatures" between minimal music, chamber classic and folk with clever arrangements featuring lots of instruments, with some conventional piano, acoustic guitar and occasional calm drums, bringing in more classical instruments such as violins or mandolin. Rhythm is important, it is always present, played mostly lightly as a feather, carried by guitar or other melodic instruments, but still the backbone of the sound (this is not an album for fans of a mighty drum and bass section, though).

The PCO occupies a quite unique and original niche. I know one other album of the band and a few further songs, so that I can't really comment on where "When in Rome" stands in their catalog, but my impression is that it represents the PCO sound quite typically, which has probably not changed so much over their career. They found their concept early on and stuck to it, by and large. So far, therefore, my conclusion is that it can only be a good thing to have a PCO album in your collection, and it may well be this one.

Now the thing is that somehow the music of the PCO is not really my cup of tea. The reason is probably that it's all a bit too easy going, too nice and too pleasant. The melodic material is quite simple, sometimes reminding of children's songs or country and western. The musicians obviously have fun playing this and the arrangements can't be faulted, but still, I don't get much emotional depth from this. I somehow get the feeling that this is music either for people who don't have an all too emotionally moving life and listen to music as a nice distraction, or on the other hand people who want to forget about how hard life is. This kind of music feels like a distraction from life to me, whereas the music about which I am more passionate carries the depth of life with it.

As far as I know the PCO, there is nothing wrong in particular with this album; what I just wrote holds, in my intuition, for all their music as far as I know it, and this means that it's probably a personal thing that I just can't really connect to it emotionally. In this sense, it's something of an unfair review. I'm sure that this is very good music according to their own standards that are absolutely legitimate but are not mine, so don't let me stop you buying this. I am even fine with having this one album of theirs in my collection. So I could rate this as 4 stars because I believe it's good enough for this in some idealised "objective" sense - except that I play this less often and actually like it less than a couple of others I rated 3 stars, so I'm not going to give this one more, no I won't! (And who am I to tell what's "objective"?)

 Broadcasting From Home by PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA, THE album cover Studio Album, 1984
3.98 | 24 ratings

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Broadcasting From Home
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra Eclectic Prog

Review by tszirmay
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

4 stars The Penguin Cafe Orchestra is as eclectic as prog gets, way beyond the usual parameters of the genre, far removed from bubbly Moog runs, blistering Rickenbacker bass rumbles, laser-guided electric guitar solos and thrashing Hammond organ. Quite the opposite, PCO was formed in that glorious period of 1973, when music from all genres were actively incorporated into the progressive fold, a laboratory of incredible adventure (and stamina) , still ear-friendly in the 21st Century. Not really surprising as the classically trained young 70s musicians flocked to the Rock idiom en masse, wanting to be part of this youthful exuberant cultural movement that had taken over the artistic world. Simon Jeffes was a gifted composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist who wished to put into music the dreams he slept through, very much in a neo-classical mode using an array of stringed instruments (violin, viola, cello) as well as the rare and bizarre such as Harmonium, Spinet, Ukulele, Cuatro, Soloban, Dulcitone, Omnichord etc'.....

Simon Jeffes led the PCO on many sessions with artists as varied as Bob Geldof, Jeff Beck, Caravan, as well as providing a slew of soundtracks for various media projects. Steve Nye on piano was a regular contributor as well as the legendary Caravan man Geoffrey Richardson (viola, guitar, bass, shaker, penny whistle) as well as drummers Mike Giles of KC fame and Trevor Morais of Quantum Jump/Rupert Hine.

The music lies somewhere afield of Anthony Phillips, directly south of John G. Perry's solo work on which Jeffes guested rather brilliantly. An all-instrumental album of brief yet vivid pieces, 'Broadcasting From Home' is a sheer delight to wade through, especially if the listener is okay without the usual electric powerfuses and into a more acoustic environment. And as with Canterbury and the British jazz-rock scene, there is more of that sassy tongue in cheek humor with funny titles like 'Sheep Dip', 'More Milk', 'Prelude & Yodel', 'Now Nothing' and that perennial favorite 'In the Back of a Taxi', among many others. Every track is a raw, unpolished nugget of genius, extremely original and completely devoid of plagiarism of any kind, boldly forging a new kind of prog where no one had dared yet to venture. In this, the PCO remains a distinct anomaly of surreal proportions, much to the delight of prog adventurers looking for a new fix. Much more cinematic (and complex) than ambient electronic , more influential than soundtrack music for film, the PCO is the last frontier before entering the outright classical world of the great composers and thus deserves immense praise for its artistic vision as well as the legacy of a British prog scene always on the lookout for the odd and bold. Sadly, Simon died in 1997 of a brain tumor. His dreams and his music lives on.

4.5 domicile tuxedoes

 A Brief History by PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA, THE album cover Boxset/Compilation, 2001
4.29 | 8 ratings

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A Brief History
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra Eclectic Prog

Review by nickel

4 stars First things first: Do not judge this album based on the first track! It's my least favorite track here. At least give this a listen through track 4... then you'll have a good feel for this.

This is an excellent "best of" collection from Simon Jeffes' Penguin Cafe Orchestra. This is not a bad place for newcomers to start as it does span the full history of the band. However, as is the case with any compilation, especially in Prog or Art Rock circles, listening to the full original albums is preferable. That's the only reason this has 4 stars rather than 5. I just can't give a greatest hits collection 5 stars on principle.

That said, this music is fantastic instrumental acoustic... kind of a "progressive folk" vibe. Every track is 4 or 5 stars! PCO is known to find a groove and jam on it for a few minutes. This may sound repetitive in some cases to others, but it's actually quite enjoyable to listen as they take a simple riff and build on it and add layers while the riff repeats underneath (if you know Scale the Summit's type of music, this is not too different... just acoustic rather than metallic). Good for an engaging listen or as background music while working the ol' desk job.

Highlights include "Telephone and Rubber Band" and "Music for a Found Harmonium" which are the PCO's two most famous tracks (used on soundtracks, commercials, etc). Other highlights: the melancholy-turned-to-beauty of Prelude & Yodel; the playfulness of "Heartwind" and "Giles Farnaby's Dream"; the juxtaposition of a quietly surging rhythm section underneath sad piano (think Michael Giacchino's music from TV show "Lost") on "White Mischief";

 Music From The Penguin Cafe by PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA, THE album cover Studio Album, 1976
3.87 | 43 ratings

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Music From The Penguin Cafe
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra Eclectic Prog

Review by locomiqui

3 stars This first PCO album is great. the style could be a mixture of jazz, Experimental Rock, Rock in Opposition and something of eclectic music. I love this band and this album since I saw the sleeve, always have been interesting for the progressive rock new proposals and this band was the case. Can you imagine the penguins-mans? Well, I think is very funny but you realize that this is a conceptual band. I recommend PIGTAIL that is an atmospheric song very smooth and you can dream and imagine a lot of things with this one, and The Sound Of Someone You Love Who's Going Away And It Doesn't Matter. Simon Jeffes was an excelent musician and the leader of PCO who unfortunately died in 1997.

 Penguin Cafe Orchestra by PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA, THE album cover Studio Album, 1981
4.11 | 46 ratings

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Penguin Cafe Orchestra
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra Eclectic Prog

Review by thellama73
Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

5 stars Aside from having one of the best album covers in the history of recorded music, this self-titled second album from the Penguin Cafe Orchestra is also one of the most unique, humorous and downright pleasant records I've ever encountered.

The Band is the creation of Simon Jeffes (alas, no longer with us) who wrote all the music and meticulously rehearsed his diverse group of extremely talented musicians. He also played about a dozen of the instruments himself. The sound he created is difficult to define. Most record stores list the PCO under New Age, which in my opinion is absurd. The truth is that the songs are a mishmash of Jeffes' eclectic influences including, but not limited to, jazz, world music, classical, ambient, lounge and maybe even a little pop. It's all instrumental and all acoustic, although I suspect there has been a certain amount of studio manipulation on one or two tracks, and all delightful.

I mentioned before that the music is humorous, and indeed it is, but not in a Frank Zappa, or even Spike Jones, kind of way. It makes you laugh in the same way a small child laughs when he sees something wonderful and utterly unexpected. It is the humor of joy unbridled. This is revealed in track titles like "Telephone and Rubber Band" and "The Ecstacy of Dancing Fleas." Elsewhere, the album ventures into slightly more sober territory, while still not taking itself too seriously. "Cutting Branches For A Temporary Shelter" remains one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. At times it's almost heartbreaking.

Let me tell you folks, to produce an album so relentlessly innocent and optimistic without it turning into insipid treacle is no small feat. Simon Jeffes has achieved it, and yet remains unjustly obscure.

 Penguin Cafe Orchestra by PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA, THE album cover Studio Album, 1981
4.11 | 46 ratings

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Penguin Cafe Orchestra
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra Eclectic Prog

Review by 1967/ 1976

4 stars Interesting band this Penguin Cafe Orchestra, probably the last 70's Prog band to born. This is the creature of Simon Jeffes and have a strange line-up with other 10 musicians and in my opinion Penguin Cafe Orchestra is a chamber version of E.L.O., not just to be accurate but not so much to give a rough idea of the music offered. This is the 2nd album and the title is "Penguin Cafe orchestra". This album was recorded at the Penguin Cafe between 1977 and 1980. All the songs was wrote by Simon Jeffes except for "Paul's Dance" (Jeffes and Nye), "Cutting Branches" (traditional), and "Walk Don't Run" (by J. Smith). If you search the band and the album in Wikipedia this album is scheduled as instrumental Folk. This is correct but also not proper correct. Ok, the music is Folk but since the structure of the songs are also close to Canterbury or Krautrock I think that Penguin Cafe Orchestra as band (and as album) are good also as Prog band. In a good substance if you think a strange mix between Amazing Blondel, Fairport Convention, East Of Eden, Mike Oldfield, Aktuala, Popol Vuh and Clark Hutchinson (all in acoustic version) and Mozart with renaissance music and you think a great ballad version of this mix in Folk field you have Penguin Cafe Orchestra. In general if you think that King Crimson was the best for complexity, Penguin Cafe Orchestra in the chamber version of King Crimson but without their complexity!

I do not have a favorite song in this album but sure "Pythagora's Trousers", dominated by viola is the more Rock song in this album. "Walk Don't Run" in this version is great. The rest of the album is in the direction that I have described above, in some moments more close to Krautrock and in some moments more close to Folk.

In definitive if you not love chamber music or atmospheric Folk I think that Penguin Cafe is a difficult band (and album). Vice versa Penguin Cafe Orchestra is your band (and album)

Thanks to clarke2001 for the artist addition. and to JLocke for the last updates

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