A Matter of Life... 2021 (Remastered) Penguin Cafe

• 1That, Not That04:24
• 2Landau04:55
• 3Sundog02:32
• 4The Fox and the Leopard03:02
• 5Finland04:56
• 6Pale Peach Jukebox05:02
• 7Harry Piers 202104:05
• 8Two Beans Shaker02:02
• 9From a Blue Temple08:40
• 10Ghost in the Pond04:08
• 11Coriolis02:04
• Total Runtime45:50

Info for A Matter of Life... 2021 (Remastered)

Penguin Cafe are back with a lovingly produced 10th anniversary reissue of their debut album, titled A Matter of Life… 2021. Besides being completely remastered and pressed on vinyl for the very first time, the record also features a brand new 2021 recording of lead single Harry Piers, a song commemorating Arthur Jeffes’ late father and Penguin Cafe Orchestra founder Simon Jeffes.

A Matter of Life… 2021 is a chance for a classic example of the beauty that’s found in collaboration to reach fresh ears, and an opportunity to breathe new life into fan favourites. The album, performed by a mix of personalities — including Neil Codling of Suede and, on percussion, Cass Browne of Gorillaz — incorporates the aesthetics of the original PCO, seasoned into a confident and redefined style, maintaining that quintessentially English sound, but adding a fresh direction and a sense that they are evolving into something new and very much their own.

“I originally wrote Harry Piers to play at my dad‘s memorial service 24 years ago, and I played it at the end of pretty much every gig (and soundcheck) we’ve done since, so I’ve probably played it hundreds if not thousands of times since we originally released A Matter of Life... So when we decided to reissue the album, Robert and I both felt it would be fun to record an up-to-date version of this song, because it has changed over time and it continues to evolve. So while this is still very much the same tune, I think it has a lot more nuance and detail that reflect the years that have passed since 2011” — Arthur Jeffes

Arthur Jeffes, piano, ring mod (2), cuatro (4, 6, 10), dulcitone (3, 10), ukulele (1, 8, 10), bass (3), percussion (1, 3, 8), harmonium (9), penny whistles (10), prayer bowl (5)
Vincent Greene, viola, violin (6, 8), güiro (9)
Andy Waterworth, double bass, e-bass
Rebecca Waterworth, cello, paper percussion (9)
Des Murphy, ukulele (4, 6, 8, 10), cuatro (8), glockenspiel (2)
Neil Codling, ukulele (4), piano (10), cuatro (6), harmonium (2)
Darren Berry, violin (2, 6, 8, 10)
Oli Langford, violin (2, 5, 11)
Tom Chichester-Clark, cuatro (4), ukulele (6), melodica (2)
Cass Browne, percussion (10)
Kathryn Tickell Northumbrian, pipes (2)

Digitally remastered

Penguin Cafe “My father, Simon Jeffes, was in the south of France in 1972-73, where he got terrible food poisoning from some bad shellfish and spent 3 or 4 days with a terrible fever. During this, he had very vivid waking dream – a nightmare vision of the near future – where everyone lived in big concrete blocks and spent their lives looking into screens. There was a big camera in the corner of everyone’s room, an eye looking down at them. In one room there was a couple making love lovelessly, while in another there was a musician sat at a vast array of equipment but with headphones on so there was no actual music in the room. This was a very disconnected de-humanising world that people had made for themselves…

However you could reject that and look further afield, and if you went down this dusty road you would eventually find a ramshackle old building with noise and light pouring out into the dark. It’s a place you just fundamentally want to go into, and this is the Penguin Cafe. There are long tables and everyone sits together, and it’s very cheerfully chaotic. In the back there is always a band playing music that you are sure you’ve heard somewhere but you have no idea where – and that is the Penguin Cafe Orchestra – they play this music.

When my dad woke up he decided that he would write the music that would be played by the band from his dream, and so with that as a criteria he then wrote for the next 25 years and that is the world that we now also inhabit…” (Arthur Jeffes, BBC London, February 8th 2014)

Penguin Cafe was founded by Arthur Jeffes in 2009, bringing together a talented and disparate group of musicians from the likes of Suede, Gorillaz and Razorlight, initially to perform his father Simon Jeffes’ legacy of world renowned Penguin Cafe Orchestra music, ten years after his untimely death in 1997.

Arthur, a talented composer in his own right, quickly began to create new and unique genre-defying music, with the spellbinding philosophy of the Penguin Cafe always in his mind.

Arthur utilizes many different instruments and influences including elements of African, Venezuelan, Brazilian, Bluegrass, Classical, Avant-Garde & Minimalist music, using a variety of instruments from strings, pianos, harmoniums, slide guitars, cuatros, kalimbas, experimental sound loops, mathematical notations and more.

To date, Arthur’s Penguin Cafe has released two acclaimed albums of fresh, innovative and beautiful music that have achieved the seemingly impossible feat of creating something new and different and still exciting the worldwide fan base of original PCO followers.

The new album ‘The Imperfect Sea’, a collection of dance records made on real instruments, is due for release May 5th 2017 accompanied by a special show at Le Poisson Rouge in New York, followed by more live dates across UK, USA, Japan and Europe throughout 2017.

Arthur William Phoenix Young Jeffes born 21 July 1978, London is an English composer, producer, musician and arctic explorer. He is the founder and frontman of the Penguin Cafe and is one half of the band Sundog. Other work includes composing film scores and most recently producing Sam Lee’s new album out in 2015.

Jeffes was born in London to the artist Emily Young and musician and composer, Simon Jeffes. Jeffes’s interest in experimental music was recognised by his father when he took a hammer to the keys of his father’s piano. While both of his parents nurtured his musicality he was encouraged to base any career on a strong academic background. He read Archaeology and Anthropology at Trinity College, Cambridge.

In 2007, Jeffes brought together original members of the PCO for a set of memorial concerts to mark ten years since his father’s death. Encouraged by the public’s response to the concerts, Jeffes decided that keeping his father’s music alive and adding to the mythology behind the band was a worthwhile endeavour. He founded the Penguin Cafe with a brand new line-up, including Cass Browne of Gorillaz, Neil Codling of Suede, Oli Langford of Florence and the Machine and Darren Berry of Razorlight. They have released two albums, A Matter of Life… (2008) and The Red Book (2014).

In 2012, Jeffes was commissioned by the artist Nelly Ben-Hayoun to write several pieces for the NASA Kepler Project to be played by the International Space Orchestra. The pieces “1420” and “Aurora” were beamed into Space in 2013. “1420” was inspired by the WOW! Signal.

2017 sees Arthur releasing the new Penguin Cafe album with extensive touring, alongside animation and dance projects.

Booklet for A Matter of Life... 2021 (Remastered)