Penguin Cafe Orchestrated

The Penguin Cafe Orchestrated was a kind of free assembly of musicians coming from different backgrounds, carried out by the Guitariste, Compositeur and arranger Simon Jeffes (Sussex, England, ° 1949 † 1997). The group was created in 1974.

Penguin Cafe Orchestrated occurred and recorded albums during 24 years, until the death of Jeffes in 1997, of the continuations of a Tumeur with the brain.

Biography

Creation and inspirations

Only Jeffes and the Co-founder of the group, the violonist Helen Liebmann were permanent members of the group, the other musicians being recruited according to the needs for the recordings and the concerts. Their style is difficult to define, but it is sometimes close to the music of the French musician Yann Tiersen, with which it divides a little the exubérance of the Musique folk. One finds there also esthetics minimalist of the American type-setter Philip Glass.

History

After being themselves wearied rigidity of the Classical music and having become aware of the limits of the Rock'n'roll, styles which it had tested both, Jeffes was interested in the traditional Musique, in which it detected a certain freedom. It thus decided to impregnate its work of spontaneousness and specific spirituality to this music.

While describing the way in which the idea of Penguin Cafe Orchestrated had come to him, Jeffes declared:

(what can be translated: “While I took a sun bath on the place, a poem appeared in my spirit. It started with “I am the owner of Penguin Cafe, I will tell you things to the hazard.” And he says to me how much the random one, spontaneousness, the surprise, the unexpected one and irrationality are important things in our lives. If you remove that to have a pretty well ordered life, you destroy what is most important. While in Penguin Coffee, your unconscious can live freely. It is accepted over there, and thus everyone saw. This tolerance is related to our way of living the present without fear none in us. ”)

The first album, “ Music From The Penguin Cafe ” left in 1976 on the experimental label Brian Eno, Obcure Records, a branch of E.G. Records. It comprises pieces recorded between 1974 and 1976. A second opus followed in 1981, baptized “ Penguin Cafe Orchestrated ”, then the albums left at relatively regular intervals (all the 1 to approximately 3 years).

The first great concert was a first part of Kraftwerk, with the Roundhouse with London, in 1977. The group connected with several round the world tours and occurred in many festivals.

This formation will remain a case with share in the history of the music of the XXe century. It knew to create, in a score of businesss year, a single universe, completely personal, which met the adhesion of many admirors through planet. The music of this group shines by its obvious direction of freedom, its many possible, its grace and its opening towards the avant-garde, while having known to preserve its Anglo-Saxon roots (with sometimes even of the memories of a folklore without age).

Famous pieces

Their most known work is “Telephone & Rubber Band”, which is built around a noise of ringing of Téléphone, turning buckles some during all the piece. This Sample was recorded by Jeffes while it passed a telephone call. It is made up at the same time of a telephone bell and sound announcing the connection. Jeffes immediately recorded it on a Répondeur. The piece belongs to the Original soundtrack Australian film Malcolm and of that of Talk Radio . One also finds it in a publicity campaign of the company of English Télécommunication One20ne, subsidiary of T-Mobile. One will find samples drawn from telephones in “Pythagoras One The Line”, of the album “Union Coffee”.

One finds another track of Penguin Cafe Orchestrated on the original soundtrack of Malcolm , “Music for has Found Harmonium”. Jeffes wrote it on a abandoned Harmonium which it found in a street of Kyoto, during the first round of the group to the Japan

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