Biography
Penguin Cafe functions as both a direct extension and a tribute to the avant-pop ensemble Penguin Cafe Orchestra, originally founded by composer Simon Jeffes. Arthur Jeffes, Simon’s son and an English composer and musician, leads the project, which shares the earlier group’s uncategorizable fusion of folk, jazz, pop, and chamber elements along with occasional use of nonstandard instruments, yet includes none of the prior PCO members even while performing some of their works. Although Penguin Cafe’s initial recordings closely followed the established PCO approach, later projects broadened the palette, notably through the largely acoustic but electronically tinted 2017 album The Imperfect Sea and the rhythmically driven, sometimes tropical Rain Before Seven... released in 2023.
A decade after Simon Jeffes died in 1997, a series of PCO reunion shows at London’s Union Chapel prompted Arthur to assemble his own ensemble under the name Penguin Cafe. The roster incorporated high-profile players such as Neil Codling of Suede, Cass Browne of Gorillaz, Darren Berry of Razorlight, and Oli Langford of Florence + the Machine, together with musicians drawn from the Royal College of Music.
The band issued its debut album, A Matter of Life…, on its own independent label in 2011; critics praised the record as an exceptionally faithful continuation of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra aesthetic, yet Jeffes asserted his own compositional identity and refused to be limited by fidelity to his father’s catalog. Subsequent work drew from Jeffes’s collaboration with the International Space Orchestra and NASA Ames, which produced the tracks “Aurora” and “1420” that were transmitted into space and ultimately seeded the 2014 release The Red Book. In 2015 the four-song EP Umbrella appeared, a joint effort with Japanese artist Cornelius.
An ever-changing pool of performers, sometimes reaching ten members, continued to define the group. For its third album Jeffes took inspiration from one of his father’s remarks—“We wade in a sea of imperfections”—and crafted 2017’s The Imperfect Sea, which, though mostly original, also incorporated covers of Kraftwerk’s “Franz Schubert,” Simian Mobile Disco’s “Wheels Within Wheels,” and a reworking of Simon Jeffes’ “Now Nothing.” Greenpeace next commissioned four penguin-themed pieces that grew into the 2019 full-length Handfuls of Night, conceived as the soundtrack to an imagined realm of anthropomorphic penguins. A remastered and revised edition of the debut, titled A Matter of Life... 2021 and featuring one newly recorded track, came out in 2022. The more buoyant Rain Before Seven..., which weaves in Afro-Cuban elements and honors the late pianist Harold Budd, followed in 2023.
A decade after Simon Jeffes died in 1997, a series of PCO reunion shows at London’s Union Chapel prompted Arthur to assemble his own ensemble under the name Penguin Cafe. The roster incorporated high-profile players such as Neil Codling of Suede, Cass Browne of Gorillaz, Darren Berry of Razorlight, and Oli Langford of Florence + the Machine, together with musicians drawn from the Royal College of Music.
The band issued its debut album, A Matter of Life…, on its own independent label in 2011; critics praised the record as an exceptionally faithful continuation of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra aesthetic, yet Jeffes asserted his own compositional identity and refused to be limited by fidelity to his father’s catalog. Subsequent work drew from Jeffes’s collaboration with the International Space Orchestra and NASA Ames, which produced the tracks “Aurora” and “1420” that were transmitted into space and ultimately seeded the 2014 release The Red Book. In 2015 the four-song EP Umbrella appeared, a joint effort with Japanese artist Cornelius.
An ever-changing pool of performers, sometimes reaching ten members, continued to define the group. For its third album Jeffes took inspiration from one of his father’s remarks—“We wade in a sea of imperfections”—and crafted 2017’s The Imperfect Sea, which, though mostly original, also incorporated covers of Kraftwerk’s “Franz Schubert,” Simian Mobile Disco’s “Wheels Within Wheels,” and a reworking of Simon Jeffes’ “Now Nothing.” Greenpeace next commissioned four penguin-themed pieces that grew into the 2019 full-length Handfuls of Night, conceived as the soundtrack to an imagined realm of anthropomorphic penguins. A remastered and revised edition of the debut, titled A Matter of Life... 2021 and featuring one newly recorded track, came out in 2022. The more buoyant Rain Before Seven..., which weaves in Afro-Cuban elements and honors the late pianist Harold Budd, followed in 2023.
Albums
Rain Before Seven...
2023
A Matter of Life... 2021
2022
Handfuls of Night
2020
The Imperfect Sea
2017
Umbrella Ep1
2016
The Red Book
2014
Singles
