PENGUIN CAFE

Penguin Cafe was founded by Arthur Jeffes in 2009, bringing together a talented and disparate group of musicians initially to perform his father Simon Jeffes’ legacy of world-renowned PCO 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, blending classical instruments like violins and cellos with unexpected elements like ukuleles and melodicas, the spellbinding philosophy of the Penguin Cafe always in his mind. 

Penguin Cafe have released five studio albums of original music, four of which are released on Erased Tapes Records:

A Matter of Life   2008   |   The Red Book  2014   |   The Imperfect Sea  2017  |   Handfuls of Night   2019   |   Rain Before Seven…  2023

The 2024-2025 UK & Ireland Tour ‘Penguin Cafe performs Music from the Penguin Cafe Orchestra’ pays homage to the original PCO music featuring performances of classic compositions that have been captivating listeners for decades. Audiences can expect to hear beloved works like ‘Music from a Found Harmonium’ and ‘Perpetuum Mobile’ delivered with the ensemble’s signature warmth and inventiveness. This tour not only celebrates the enduring legacy of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra but also showcases the continued evolution of their sound under Arthur Jeffes direction. To commemorate the tour Universal Music has re-released all of the original PCO albums on limited edition Vinyl, and the original iconic PCO album cover paintings by Emily Young are available to own as limited edition art prints for the first time. 

www.penguincafe.com

PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA

“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 Orchestra (PCO) was a British avant-pop and chamber jazz group founded in 1972 by Simon Jeffes. The ensemble blended classical, folk, jazz, and minimalism with a whimsical, experimental spirit, creating a sound that is famously genre defying. Their music featured unconventional instrumentation, including ukuleles, harmoniums, and found sounds, resulting in a warm and organic aesthetic.

The group’s debut album, Music from the Penguin Cafe (1976), introduced their distinctive style, exec produced by Brian Eno and released on his label - Obscure, while subsequent releases like Penguin Cafe Orchestra (1981) and Signs of Life (1987) further solidified their reputation. Tracks Like "Music for a Found Harmonium," "Perpetuum Mobile," and "Telephone and Rubber Band" have become some of their most recognizable compositions, featured endlessly across tv and film, embodying the ensemble’s playful yet sophisticated ethos.

Their music has permeated popular culture, appearing in films (Napoleon Dynamite, The Founder, Mary and Max), television (The Handmaid’s Tale, Malcolm in the Middle), and countless advertisements. “Music for a Found Harmonium” became a folk-dance staple, featuring on the original iconic Cafe Del Mar album and Perpetuum Mobile providing the theme for Avicii’s ‘Fade into darkness’.

PCO’s enduring charm lies in their ability to create timeless, emotive music that remains fresh and inviting, and the legacy of the PCO remains strong despite Jeffes’ passing in 1997. His son, Arthur Jeffes, revived the concept with Penguin Cafe, continuing the tradition of genre-blending, pastoral soundscapes and they are currently celebrating the Universal Music reissue of the six original album LPs with international touring of the original music ‘Penguin Cafe perform Music from the Penguin Cafe Orchestra’ through 2025-26.

ARTHUR JEFFES

Arthur Jeffes is a composer and producer working in London. Arthur is currently working on a solo Piano Sessions album, and is touring his solo show through 2025. Arthur works with groups that include Penguin Cafe, Sundog and  astrophysicists Samaya Nissanke and Jean Michel Desert.

www.arthurjeffes.com