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Arthur Jeffes
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Key Information
Arthur William Phoenix Young Jeffes (born 21 July 1978, Paddington, London, England) is an English composer, musician, and arctic explorer.[1] He is the frontman of the musical group Penguin Cafe, a group he formed in 2007 to play the music of his father's band, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. He is one half of the band Sundog.[2]
Early life
[edit]Jeffes was born in London to the artist Emily Young and musician and composer Simon Jeffes. Jeffes's interest in experimental music was recognised by his father when he took a hammer to the keys of his father's piano.[3] He read Archaeology and Anthropology at Trinity College, Cambridge.[4][better source needed]
Penguin Cafe
[edit]In 2007, original members of Penguin Cafe Orchestra performed a series of three memorial concerts, with Arthur Jeffes performing onstage with the band for the first time,[5] to mark ten years since Simon Jeffes' death.[6] Encouraged by the public response to the Union Chapel concerts, which all sold out, Jeffes decided that keeping his father's music alive was a worthwhile endeavour. He founded a new band, Penguin Cafe, with a new line-up, including Cass Browne of Gorillaz, Neil Codling of Suede, Oli Langford of Florence and the Machine and Darren Berry of Razorlight.[7] Penguin Cafe have performed on stage playing works of Simon Jeffes and their own pieces.[8][9]
International Space Orchestra
[edit]In 2012, Jeffes was commissioned by the artist Nelly Ben-Hayoun to write several pieces for the NASA Kepler space telescope mission, to be played by the International Space Orchestra.[10][11] The pieces "1420" and "Aurora" were beamed into space in 2013. "1420" was inspired by the WOW! signal.
Other work
[edit]Jeffes has also formed recording duos with violinist Oli Langford as Sundog, and with pianist Mark Springer as Aparat.
Discography
[edit]- Penguin Cafe
- A Matter of Life... (2011)
- The Red Book (2014)
- The Imperfect Sea (2017)
- Handfuls of Night (2019)
- Rain Before Seven... (2023)
- Sundog
- Insofar (2012)
- Aparat
- Aparat (2016)
References
[edit]- ^ "Blizzard: Race To The Pole". BBC. 25 July 2006.
- ^ "About". Sundog Music. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
- ^ "A voyage round my father's orchestra". The Guardian. 12 June 2009.
- ^ "Arthur Jeffes (I)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
- ^ Walters, John (13 December 2007). "Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Union Chapel, London". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
- ^ "Obituary: Simon Jeffes". The Independent. 18 December 1997.
- ^ "Penguin Cafe". Penguin Cafe. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
- ^ "Gig review: Penguin Café and Portico Quartet". The Scotsman. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
- ^ "Penguin legend lives on". Basingstoke Gazette. 31 January 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
- ^ Your Name Here. "Ground Control". Groundcontrol-opera.com. Archived from the original on 17 May 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
- ^ Nelly Ben Hayoun (6 September 2012). "The International Space Orchestra - Nelly Ben Hayoun". Nellyben.com. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
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Arthur Jeffes
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Early life and education
Family background and heritage
Arthur Jeffes was born on 21 July 1978 in Paddington, London, England. [5] He is the son of composer and musician Simon Jeffes, founder of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and sculptor Emily Young. [5] [6] Simon Jeffes died in 1997. [2] [6] Emily Young, Jeffes' mother, comes from a family with notable artistic heritage; her paternal grandmother was Kathleen Scott, a successful sculptor who had previously been married to Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott. [6] As a result, Kathleen Scott was Arthur Jeffes' great-grandmother. [7] This lineage reflects a blend of musical, sculptural, and exploratory legacies within his family background. [6] [7]Childhood and early influences
Arthur Jeffes displayed an early fascination with sound and experimentation during his childhood. As a young boy, he once spent an afternoon striking the keys of the family piano with a hammer in an attempt to make it sound louder and achieve a wider dynamic range; the instrument—his mother's upright piano, on which his father had composed pieces—was left with smashed key fronts, making it somewhat hazardous to play later. [8] [9] His father, Simon Jeffes, recognized the exploratory intent behind this act and did not reprimand him harshly, reflecting an openness to unconventional musical approaches even when they failed or caused damage. [8] Jeffes grew up deeply immersed in the creative environment of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, founded and led by his father. He frequently attended his father's concerts as a small child, often falling asleep in his mother's lap while the music enveloped him and influenced his dreams. [10] Dyslexic as a child and unable to read sheet music, he taught himself piano by ear, spending hours at the instrument in this intuitive way. [10] His father's habit of playing new compositions for the family at home, along with recording everyday household sounds for their rhythmic or narrative potential, further exposed him to experimental music-making from an early age. [8] Simon Jeffes died in 1997, when Arthur was 19. [1] The pervasive presence of his father's music throughout Jeffes' formative years helped define his early relationship to sound and creativity. [1]University studies
Arthur Jeffes studied archaeology and anthropology at Trinity College, Cambridge.[11][12] He is listed as a graduate in archaeology from Trinity College, Cambridge.[13]Music career
Founding and development of Penguin Cafe
Following the death of his father Simon Jeffes in 1997, Arthur Jeffes organized a tribute concert in 2007 at London's Union Chapel, where he performed material from the Penguin Cafe Orchestra for the first time in a live ensemble setting. [14] This performance marked Arthur's debut as a bandleader and proved life-changing, sparking invitations to present the repertoire at festivals and encouraging him to continue the work. [14] In 2009, Arthur founded Penguin Cafe as a distinct ensemble to carry forward his father's legacy, initially assembling a group of musicians to perform the Penguin Cafe Orchestra's music ten years after Simon Jeffes' death. [2] The early lineup featured a diverse collection of players, including Cass Browne (Gorillaz), Neil Codling (Suede), Oli Langford, and others drawn from varied musical backgrounds. [15] Although the project began as a vehicle for the existing repertoire, it soon evolved under Arthur's leadership to emphasize original compositions that built on his father's genre-defying approach, incorporating classical strings alongside unexpected instruments and influences. [2] [14] This shift allowed Penguin Cafe to develop its own identity while honoring the playful yet intricate spirit of the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra. [2]Albums and performances
Penguin Cafe, led by Arthur Jeffes, serves as a continuation of and homage to the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra founded by his father Simon Jeffes.[16] The group's discography consists of five studio albums that expand on the avant-pop and chamber music style of the original ensemble while introducing Jeffes' own compositions.[17][3] The project began with the debut album A Matter of Life... released in 2011 on Editions Penguin Cafe Ltd.[17] This was followed by the self-released The Red Book in 2014.[17] In 2017, Penguin Cafe signed with Erased Tapes Records, which issued The Imperfect Sea.[3] The label continued with Handfuls of Night in 2019, a commissioned work inspired by Antarctic exploration, and Rain Before Seven... in 2023.[3] Erased Tapes also reissued A Matter of Life... in 2021.[3] Live performances by Penguin Cafe combine selections from the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra repertoire with new material composed by Arthur Jeffes, delivered through a flexible chamber ensemble featuring strings, percussion, ukuleles, and other eclectic instrumentation.[3] The group has maintained an active touring schedule, including a UK tour in 2023 and a scheduled performance at the Royal Albert Hall in March 2025.[3]Collaborations and side projects
Arthur Jeffes has undertaken several collaborations and side projects distinct from his primary work leading Penguin Cafe. [18] He formed the duo Sundog with violinist Oli Langford, releasing their debut album Insofar on October 1, 2012, under the Penguin Cafe Label. [19] The project adhered to self-imposed constraints, using only sounds derived from acoustic and electric instruments including piano, violin, dulcitone, Rhodes, and harmonium, while employing studio techniques to manipulate and enhance them for innovative textures. [19] Some tracks remained simple piano and violin pieces, while others incorporated more experimental processing to produce unusual sonic results. [19] In 2016, Jeffes collaborated with pianist Mark Springer in the duo Aparat, releasing their self-titled album on April 1, 2016. [20] The project focused on keyboard instruments such as piano, dulcitone, harmonium, celesta, and spinet, occasionally incorporating percussion and small sound sources, to condense cinematic scope into intimate, fragile spaces marked by delicate interplay and hypnotic grooves. [21] In 2012, Jeffes received a commission from artist Nelly Ben-Hayoun to compose for the NASA Kepler Project, with pieces performed by the International Space Orchestra. [18] The works "1420"—inspired by the WOW! Signal—and "Aurora" were beamed into space in 2013. [18]Film and television work
Composing credits
Arthur Jeffes has composed original music for several short films. [22] His credits begin with Prelude (2009), where he served as composer. [22] He continued with Confession (2010) and Kneaded (2012), composing for both shorts. [22] He also composed the soundtrack for Turtle Journey (2020), a short animated film produced by Greenpeace and Aardman Animations to promote ocean conservation. [4] More recently, he provided the score for To the Boats (2019) and A Wait (2023), acting as composer on each. [22] On A Wait (2023), he also received credit as an additional musician. [22] All of Jeffes' documented composing credits in film are for short-form projects, with no feature-length films or television series among them. [22]On-screen appearances
Arthur Jeffes has made limited but notable on-screen appearances in television, primarily in documentary formats where he appears as himself.In the BBC series Blizzard: Race to the Pole (2006–2007), he appeared as himself in all six episodes, credited as a member of the British team participating in the recreation of the historic 1911 race to the South Pole.[23][24] He also appeared as himself, representing Penguin Cafe, on the BBC's Breakfast program in the episode dated 6 July 2011.[25]