Music From the Penguin Cafe

1. Penguin Cafe Single

2. Zopf: From the Colonies

3. Zopf: In a Sydney Motel

4. Zopf: Surface Tension

5. Zopf: Milk

6. Zopf: Coronation

7. Zopf: Giles Farnaby's Dream

8. Zopf: Pigtail

9. Sound of Someone You Love Who's Going Away and It Doesn't Matter

10. Hugebaby

11. Chartered Flight

Music From the Penguin Cafe,The Penguin Cafe Orchestra,Editions Eg Records,Chamber Jazz,Neo-Classical,Popular Music,Rock

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Tracks:

Penguin Cafe Single
Zopf
From The Colonies
In A Sydney Motel
Surface Tension (Where The Trees Meet The Sky)
Milk
Coronation
Giles Farnaby's Dream
Pigtail
The Sound Of Someone You Love Who's Going Away And It Doesn't Matter
Hugebaby/Chartered Flight

Customer Reviews:

Man, you never can meet CD's this good so often.......2002-03-22

The first time I listened to this album was when I was a teen. Ever since, I have been addicted to Penguin Cafe Orchestra's work, but this first album is the best of all.

I owned an LP of this but recently bought a CD again, and listened to it more carefully with a better-sounding system. This made me to rediscover this gem. What a wonderful music they made! I don't think pieces in this album are so "weird". Actually, I found some of them are most relaxing music that I ever heard. But they could be a different kind of music, anyway.

The only and probably minor problem with this album is that, probably due to the inferior recording condition of their day, some pieces are suffering from distortion.

Great songs, when they're not so bizzare..........2001-08-28

This is a great CD. Simon Jeffes is a musical genius (heh, that's an understatement :). There are some wonderful songs on this album, such as "Zopf" and "Chartered Flight," however, many of the songs are quite abstract. They could really give a person a headache. And some songs on this CD, like "Penguin Cafe Single" are great, beautiful, and relaxing, but they become abstract somewhere in the middle. If you are planning to by more Penguin Cafe CDs, none of the others are quite as bizzare as this one. But I still highly recomend this CD, for its creativity, originality, and variety. Byeeeeee ^__^

Only Penquin you need on a desert island.......2001-04-18

Hilariously excellent music. People this talented are impossible to explain. I saw the documentary about them on PBS light years ago. Bought CD, lost CD. Could not live without CD so came back to Amazon and bought it again.

Something Rich and Strange.......2000-03-28

A unique and strange record, even by the standards of the pan-musical Penguin Café Orchesta, 'Music from the Penguin Café' was originally released on Brian Eno's 'Obscure' record label in the mid-seventies, by mail order only.

'MFTPC' is hard to describe, and very few retrospectives of the group's career (sadly, leader Simon Jeffes died in 1997) give this more than a passing mention, as it's almost beyond criticism - a totally self-contained universe of music, mixing primitive electronics, Brian Eno-style ambient, classical and folk to form a side-step into a timeless, alien environment. Surreal and dreamlike, it has a very distinctive 'live' sound, with birdsong faintly audible in the background of some of the tracks. Imagine Michael Nyman's wiggiest moments, as produced by Brian Eno's second assistant tape operator, and you're half-way there.

After this (and the similar follow-up, 'Penguin Café Orchestra') the PCO settled down and become much more conservative - their later work is tuneful, folky, and much less experimental.

Broadcasting from Home
Average customer rating:

Beautiful Non Catagorical Penguin Cafe

Judging By The Cover

This gets boring quickly

File under... oh, whatever

Tunes from elsewhere

Broadcasting from Home
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra
Manufacturer: Editions Eg Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Penguin Cafe Orchestra

Signs of Life

Music From the Penguin Cafe

When in Rome

Preludes, Airs & Yodels

ASIN: B000003S2W
Release Date: 1990-08-31

Tracks:

Music For A Found Harmonium
Prelude And Yodel
More Milk
Sheep Dip
White Mischief
In The Back Of A Taxi
Music By Numbers
Another One From The Colonies
Air
Heartwind
Isle Of View (Music For Helicopter Pilots)
Now Nothing

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful Non Catagorical Penguin Cafe.......2006-11-12

Music of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra combines calypso beat with musicianship of good calssical musicians to make beautiful music.

Judging By The Cover.......2005-01-25

Few bouts of salmonella would have spawned as protean a brew of music as that of Penguin Cafe Orchestra's progenitor, Simon Jeffes. Some time in the early 1980s I was leafing through the racks and stumbled on the beguiling avian art of Emily Young. She was to become a signature for the Orchestra's releases as Neon Park had served Little Feat in the 1970s. Her bizarre, Beckmanesque fantasies bespeak the romantic air of Jeffe's protean imagination. Penguin Cafe Orchestra possesses a folk sensibility translated through classical instrumentation, a sort of late 20thC Bartok. Don't go listening here for 'roots' music, or even poached hybridity. Jeffe's remarkably boyant ear achieves a cultural ambience of his own, a sprightly, muscular, lush and wistful geography peppered with attractive vistas and to be enjoyed at either a leisurely stroll or at waltzing pace. I prefer the earlier albums (especially over the 'Best Ofs') and probably this album is the most endearing. Though it's unfair to single out a member of the various ensembles that play under the PCO title, I must make mention of Helen Liebmann's cello, whose contribution to mood is never less than exemplary.

This gets boring quickly.......2004-08-21

This is the only album I have heard. The one song "Heartwind" was interesting to listen to but - most of their music is simple and repetitious. I kept wanting them to go someplace with the music. I consider them a curiosity.

File under... oh, whatever.......2004-04-12

Simon Jeffes always considered he didn't have enough musical training to be a classical musician and no intimacy with pop to be a popular musician. And although he lived in many countries and was crazy about music from many cultures he never wanted to do "world music".

A quiet man, he had one simple and rare talent: the ability to create sublime music.

And he had an even rarer talent among instrumental musicians: sense of humor.

The PCO is a small chamber group that plays instrumental music that draws from all these sources. It is music created by a music lover. Sometimes it sounds like a happy mantra from Bolivia, sometimes as a moving string quartet playing something that sounds medieval, sometimes he flirts with electronic gadgets like ring modulators (not on this CD though).

The PCO crossed boundaries like few other groups have. And nothing sounds forced, it all makes sense and seems organic as if this was the only way to play music.

The cruelest irony is that you will usually find this CD under "new age". Well, it is definitely not new age and I believe it ends up in the New Age aisle just because this genre is broad enough to fit any music that is not loud.

This is the perfect CD to give as a gift. Although very accessible and pleasant on the surface, it is so deep in its structure and has such unusual arrangements that even music scholars and nitpickers will be forced to pay attention and ask "how did he do that?".

Tunes from elsewhere.......2003-01-23

I first encountered Simon Jeffes and PCO back in the 1980s when "Prelude and Yodel" was one of those catchy little pieces of bumper music on "All Things Considered". It was several years before they announced the title on the air. When they did, I got hold of the CD and insisted on my friends listening to it several times every time they came over. I have a new set of friends now, but I still have the CD.

PCO has a minimalist style, but enough complexity to draw you in and cello performances that will make you catch your breath. Don't listen to it while you're supposed to be studying.

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