Music For A Found Harmonium is an overwhelming roundelay halfway between popular dances and Bach's chamber music. The instrumentation is serious and majestic to such extent (more than ever) that now we can really talk about a little orchestra (with Geoff Richardson on the viola and the usual partners, Liebmann and Wright, completing the biggest string section in rock music), while Jeffes's ambitions are no less lofty. Its pieces are inspired by the British folk, but Jeffes's stay in Japan inspired him to include mantra-like sequences, raga-like progressions and vibrating chimes ( More Milk, Now Nothing) as well. Poignant violin in Numbers 1-4 and the shadowy melody for accordion and metallophone in Cutting Branches complement the rural and domestic atmosphere, made of upbeat folklore.īroadcasting From Home (EG, 1984), on the other hand, veers towards rural dances. The reduction of essentiality is expressed precisely via the lunatic orchestration and catalog of whimsical ideas: the piano dissonances corrupting the stentorian cadence of Yodel 1, the ukulele solo in the festive Yodel 2, the frantic carillon for piano and harmonium of Simon's Dream, the telephonic pulse for the amusing minimalism of Telephone And Rubber Band, the symphonic adagio of Steady State. This time Jeffes focuses on European folk, especially on its ballets: the Mediterranean Air A Danser, the Celtic Pythagora's Trousers, the unrestrained Tyrolean Salty Bean Fumble, with phenomenal accordion duets, and the breathtaking oriental Walk Don't Run (assault of tzigane violin and tribal bongos). Penguin Cafe (EG, 1981) is another surreal and nostalgic offering, but now the Orchestra uses even more intriguing and irreverent instrumentation: in addition to the usual string instruments (viola, contrabass, cello, ukulele, violin) there's a plethora of woodwinds (accordion, piano, harmonium, organ) and percussions (bongos, drums, cymbals). Chartered Flight, Hugebaby and the subtle lament of Sound Of Someone wander through even more challenging paths, almost reaching the most metaphysic Weltanschauung.īetween 19 the Orchestra’s line-up had undergone a rotation of dozens of musicians. However, that “something” is refined, superb and detached. Simon Jeffes appears to look like a languid and sophisticated intellectual who is out of his mind and is doing something irrational, as pointless as extreme. The musicians' talent elevates the minimalistic ska of From The Colonies (with the lunatic duet of ukulele and harpsichord), the spirited tribalism of Milk (for phonemic singing and distortions), and the relentless renaissance jig of Giles Farnaby's Dream to a certain level of grandeur. The maniacal meticulousness of execution makes Music From The Penguin Café (Obscure, 1976) a masterpiece of travesty. (Translation from the Italian by Matteo Frigo, edited by Jakub Krawczynski) Their first incarnation was a quartet: Helen Liebmann (cello), Gavyn Wright (violin), Steven Nye (electric piano) and Simon Jeffes (eletric guitar and ukulele), and debuted with the Penguin Café Single. Every composition is a synthesis of music from certain period and exotic arrangements.
Old-fashioned, nostalgic, theatrical and lofty, calligraphic but never parodistic, this exercise in revival aims to rebuild an atmosphere (the one of bourgeois families from the end of past century strolling to the city centre on Sundays) more than a sound. Their music is as abstract as it is concrete: cabaret and ethnic folk elements are injected into baroque and renaissance music skeletons. The sound of this orchestra is fatuous and elegant, unaffected by the turmoil of modern life. The Penguin Café Orchestra are a British classical ensemble formed in 1974 by Simon Jeffes (a guitar student at the Royal Academy) aiming to play ethnic music with the austerity of Western chamber music and the decadent languor of the café-concerto. ( Copyright © 1999 renewed 2021 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use)
Penguin Cafe` Orchestra: biography, discography, reviews, ratings, best albums
0 kommentar(er)
