Penguin Cafe playing Tapestry Festival, 19th July

Arthur Jeffes

I always had music as part of my life, since my dad had pianos and guitars around the house and I was allowed to play as a way of getting out of doing homework and chores. I didn’t study music as an undergraduate but then came back to it to do an MMus in Composition at Goldsmiths, University of London.

My dad, Simon Jeffes, founded the world-renowned Penguin Café Orchestra in 1972 and I started Penguin Café almost by accident in 2009 as a way to hear his music played live again, as I missed it so much after he died when I was quite young. It has grown from there, but we always keep a focus on his music and the Penguin Café vibe.

Penguin Café Orchestra (PCO) was a British avant-pop and chamber jazz group. The ensemble blended classical folk, jazz and minimalism with a whimsical, experimental spirit, creating a genre-defying sound. Their music featured unconventional instrumentation, including ukeleles, harmoniums and found sounds, resulting in a warm and organic aesthetic.

Our style reimagines my dad’s vision, with a sound that drifts between classical minimalism, global folk and ambient pop. The band comprises piano, cuatro, ukeleles, percussion, bass, violins, viola and cello. Our live repertoire includes many PCO pieces as well as new music of our own. Our sound is best described as playful yet intricate, grounded in a belief in beauty, invention and connection.

We like to find joy in stillness and poetry in simplicity. This to a great extent reflects my interest in science, nature and collaboration, offering audiences music that feels both familiar and entirely new.

We have released five studio albums of original music and our 2024-25 UK and Ireland tour, ‘Penguin Café performs music from the Penguin Café Orchestra’, pays homage to the original PCO music, featuring performances of classic compositions that have been captivating listeners for decades. This tour not only celebrates the enduring legacy of the Penguin Café Orchestra but also showcases the continued evolution of their sound under my direction.

Our last London show was at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Teenage Cancer Trust week. Previously we’ve played at the Barbican, Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Sage in Gateshead and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.

We’re delighted to be headlining at the first ever Tapestry Festival on 19^th July. It’s great to be coming back to Southampton. We’ve played there many times and we always enjoy being in the city. I think my favourite piano in the country is the Steinway D at Turner Sims.

I’m a great believer in free festivals and cultural events that bring people together as well as bringing funding to the arts at a time when music especially is a tough place to make a living. Anything that gets people hearing music they may not have come across before is a good thing in my book.

I also like the fact that Tapestry is family friendly, too: having an event that’s for everyone is a noble enterprise for sure. I think it’s really important that genre-defying music is brought to a wider audience. The people organising Tapestry are some of the best in the industry, with an incredible range of artists to choose from. I’m looking forward to seeing as many of the other acts as possible.

Penguin Café has a number of other dates this year to look out for. We’ll be playing several festivals in August – Beautiful days, New Day and Folk East – and we’re touring again in November. We’ll be at Soho Theatre (Walthamstow), RNCM (Manchester), St George’s (Bristol), St George’s (Brighton) and Howard Assembly Room (Leeds) to mention but a few venues.

Beyond Penguin Café, at the moment I’m working with a group of inmates at HMP Wormwood Scrubs on a hiphop project, which I’m really enjoying. In the past I’ve done work with NASA Ames, and also with physicists Samaya Nissanke (on Gravitational Waves) and Jean Michel Desert (exoplanets). I recently returned from a project in Johannesburg where we were combining a live grand piano with hiphop and rapping from local young artists.

To find out more about Penguin Café, we’re on Instagram – penguincafe_official, and our website is www.penguincafe.com