A Matter of Life... 2021

by Penguin Cafe

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foreignnoodles This album is like rays of sunshine, with scattered wind and rain. Beautiful. Favorite track: Landau.

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1.	That, Not That 04:23		buy track
2.	Landau 04:55		buy track
3.	Sundog 02:32		buy track
4.	The Fox and the Leopard 03:01		buy track
5.	Finland 04:56		buy track
6.	Pale Peach Jukebox 05:02	info	buy track
7.	Harry Piers 04:04	info	buy track
8.	Two Beans Shaker 02:01		buy track
9.	From a Blue Temple 08:40	info	buy track
10.	Ghost in the Pond 04:07		buy track
11.	Coriolis 02:03	info	buy track

about

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. It’s been really lovely to come back to these old friends — and with this re-issue we’ll be bringing them all out to play live again. Now four albums on, and with our new home at Erased Tapes, it makes a lot of sense for us to go back and pull this record out and brush it off for today.” — Arthur Jeffes

The cover artwork also received an update in the shape of a beautiful photograph taken by the UK photographer and long-time collaborator Alex Kozobolis, who was sent to visit Arthur in his second home in Tuscany. Raths’ concept for this was to not only reenact the original painting by Emily Young, but to express the generational change by putting Arthur and his daughter in place of the little boy and the emperor penguin figure that suggest father and son.

The remastered 10th anniversary edition of A Matter of Life… 2021 will be available digitally, on 12” vinyl and on CD from April 29, 2022.

credits

released April 29, 2022

All tracks composed by Arthur Jeffes
except 8 by Arthur Jeffes and Des Murphy
Published by Editions Penguin Cafe

Produced by Arthur Jeffes

Recorded and mixed by Jamie Orchard-Lisle
and Arthur Jeffes at Hippodrome Place in London, 2010
on a Trident Series 70 with EMT 262 plate, TLA 5013 dual valve EQ
and C-1 compressor with two Metric Halo 2882 and a Digidesign 192
Musical director Vincent Greene

Except 7 recorded and mixed by Arthur Jeffes
at Convento di Santa Croce, Tuscany on October 28, 2021
Co-produced by Robert Raths

Mastered by Zino Mikorey

Band
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 / bass guitar
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)

Photographs by Alex Kozobolis
Based on the original detail from a painting by Emily Young
Design by Studio Torsten Posselt
Art direction Robert Raths

Harry Piers is dedicated to Simon Jeffes
From a Blue Temple to Robert Sandall

©+℗ 2022 Erased Tapes Records Ltd. All tapes erased.

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about

Penguin Cafe London, UK

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

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