Penguin Cafe Orchestra
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra was a loose association of various musicians who were consulted as needed for the current piece of the classically trained guitarist, composer and arranger Simon Jeffes, respectively.
- 5.1 soundtracks
- 5.2 Sampler
- 5.3 Simon Jeffes solo
Band History
Only Jeffes and Helen Liebmann, founder and cellist who were permanent members. Other musicians were called in each case to the requirements for specific titles or appearances. The music of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra is not easy to categorize. Comparable to it is with the music of the French multi-instrumentalist Yann Tiersen, who shares with the music of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra elements of exuberant folk and occasionally reminiscent of Philip Glass minimalist aesthetic.
Disillusioned by the rigid structures of classical music and the boundaries of rock music, where he had also tempted Simon Jeffes began an interest in the relative freedom from folk music to develop and opted to his music from then on with the same directness and mood to be provided.
The first album Music From The Penguin Cafe 1976 on Brian Eno's experimental Obscure Records label, an offshoot of EC Records published. It was a collection of pieces that had been included in the period from 1974 to 1976. This was followed in 1981 Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Since then, the band has released in more regular and shorter intervals albums.
The first major concert was Penguin Cafe Orchestra in 1977 as the opening act of Kraftwerk at the Roundhouse. The band is then performed worldwide and has played at a variety of festivals, which shall include a performance part at the 2nd International Art rock festival in Frankfurt am Main, which took place in 1989. During their performances on stage on London's South Bank was created in 1987 the recorded at the Royal Festival Hall Live Album When In Rome ....
Arthur Jeffes Simon Jeffes ' son, together with his Penguin Cafe continues the mentioned grouping developed by his father music style. In early 2011 released their album A matter of life ....
Philosophy and ideas of the band
Simon Jeffes saw the band as "a very big yes to the survival of the heart in a time When the heart is under attack from the forces of coldness, darkness and repression. " (A very big yes to the survival of the soul in times where it is attacked by the forces of cold, darkness and repression ). Jeffes described the style of Penguin Cafe Orchestra "imaginary folklore " and " modern semi- acoustic chamber music." That he hinzuzog musicians depending on the piece, he reasoned with " I write music for people rather than for instruments".
Origin of the name
Simon Jeffes was inspired by a television documentary about penguins. It fascinated him above all the natural behavior of animals, which he compares to the natural behavior of people.
Known pieces
The best-known piece of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra Telephone & Rubber Band, which is based on a continuous loop of a telephone dial tone. This piece was used in the soundtrack of the Australian film by Nadia Tass Malcolm (1986 ), Talk Radio Oliver Stone and in a long-running advertising campaign of the telecommunications company Mercury Communications. The loop was recorded by Jeffes, as he -actuated a phone call and stated that he was listening to a combination of a ringing tone and a busy tone at the same time. He took this in to an answering machine.
Another well-known piece is occurring in Malcolm Music for a Found Harmonium, which Jeffes wrote on a harmonium, which he took off during the first Japan tour of Penguin Cafe Orchestra in 1982 in a side street of Kyoto. According Jeffes he wrote the play after he had found the harmonium placed " in a house of a friend in one of the most beautiful parts of the city edge " and the next few months returned again and again to this instrument. Particularly well known, the piece was finally, when it was heard in 1994 on the first part of the cafe- del -mar - row. Through its rhythm, its tempo and simple structure, it is very suitable for adaptation into a reel dance composition was then accepted by many exponents of Irish traditional music, such as Patrick Street, De Dannan, Kevin Burke and Sharon Shannon. In 2004, the piece in the movie Napoleon Dynamite was used a year later in the Australian film It's All Gone Pete Tong. Uses of the piece dates back to 1988, when it, although it has been used in a rather obscure way for the trailer and commercials to the movie She's Having A Baby by John Hughes.
Others
The music of Penguin Cafe Orchestra was used in commercials by Euro Tunnel, The Independent, Hewlett Packard, Knorr and One2One. This American Life, a popular show in public broadcasting of the USA, the song Perpetuum Mobile frequently used for musical accompaniment (eg in the film Mary & Max - or shrinking sheep when it rains? ). The broadcast network National Public Radio placed in its news programs every now and then the ringtone of Telephone & Rubber Band between successive reports.
In Aberystwyth (Wales ) there are more than 30 years a café with the name Penguin Cafe. The Australian band My Friend The Chocolate Cake, which is one of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra on their influences, this cafe dedicated one of their songs.
In 2006, the weekly magazine The Economist Perpetuum Mobile in the version from the album Concert Program in his weekly podcast.
Discography
- Broadcasting From Home EEGCD 38 (1984 )
- Signs Of Life EEGCD 50 (1987 )
- When In Rome ... EEGCD 56 (1988 )
- Still Life DECCA 425218-2 (1990 )
- Concert Program ZOPFD 002 (1995)
Soundtracks
- Malcolm (1986 )
- Oskar and Leni (1999)
- Napoleon Dynamite - Official Soundtrack ( Music For A Found Harmonium ) (2005 )
- It's All Gone Pete Tong - Official Soundtrack ( Music For A Found Harmonium ) (2005 )
- Hewlett Packard - Advertising ( Perpetuum Mobile ) (2006 )
- Mary and Max ( Perpetuum Mobile, Prelude and Yodel ) (2009 )
Sampler
- A Brief History CDV 2954 (2001)
- History LCO 3098 (2001) Virgin Records
Simon Jeffes solo
- Composed solo pieces by Simon Jeffes, after his death - Piano Music ZOPFD 003 (2003)