![]() ![]() ![]() It started out 'I am the proprietor of the Penguin Cafe, I will tell you things at random' and it went on about how the quality of randomness, spontaneity, surprise, unexpectedness and irrationality in our lives is a very precious thing. Next day when I felt better, I was on the beach sunbathing and suddenly a poem popped into my head. It was as if I were looking into a place which had no heart. The scene was for me one of ordered desolation. Like everyone in his place he had been neutralized, made grey and anonymous. Around him there were banks of electronic equipment. In one room a person was looking into a mirror and in another a couple were making love but lovelessly, in a third a composer was listening to music through earphones. In the rooms were people, everyone of them preoccupied. I could see into the rooms, each of which was continually scanned by an electronic eye. As I lay in bed I had a strange recurring vision, there, before me, was a concrete building like a hotel or council block. I had eaten some bad fish and was in consequence rather ill. ĭescribing how the idea of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra came to him, Jeffes said: Although it includes no original PCO members, it features many PCO pieces in its live repertoire, and records and performs new music written by Arthur.Īfter becoming disillusioned with the rigid structures of classical music and the limitations of rock, in which he also dabbled, Simon Jeffes became interested in the relative freedom in ethnic music and decided to imbue his work with the same sense of immediacy and spirit. In 2009, Jeffes' son Arthur founded a distinct successor band simply called Penguin Cafe. ![]() ![]() Since then, five original members have continued to play concerts of PCO's music, first as The Anteaters, then as The Orchestra That Fell to Earth. Several remaining members of the original group reunited for three concerts in 2007. The group recorded and performed for 24 years until Jeffes died of an inoperable brain tumour in 1997. The orchestra's sound is not easily categorized, but has elements of exuberant folk music and a minimalist aesthetic occasionally reminiscent of composers such as Philip Glass. Also founded by Jeffes with cellist Helen Liebmann, the band toured extensively during the 1980s and 1990s. The Penguin Cafe Orchestra ( PCO) was an avant-pop band led by English guitarist Simon Jeffes. The Anteaters, The Orchestra That Fell to Earth, Penguin Cafe ![]()
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