Penguin Cafè Orchestra - A Brief History (2001) [FULL ALBUM HQ]

[THE BAND]
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. The sound of this orchestra is fatuous and elegant, unaffected by the turmoil of modern life. Their music is as abstract as it is concrete: cabaret and ethnic folk elements are injected into baroque and renaissance music skeletons. 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. Every composition is a synthesis of music from certain period and exotic arrangements.

[REVIEW]
"BBC Review
From Celtic folk to avant classical minimalism, the PCO's eclectic career compiled in...
Suzanne Hutson 2002-11-20
If you are in any doubt as to who The Penguin Café Orchestra are, think back to that quirky tune on the One2One advert made up of telephone dial tones and jerky violin ? Yes, that's them. Or more precisely, him; the Penguin Café Orchestra was founded in the mid 70s by one man, the late British composer Simon Jeffes, as a soundtrack for a fantasy café whose daily specials were the re-written laws of physics and music.
A former music student, Jeffes' dream - which came to him during a bout of food poisoning in the early 70s - was to write and perform music which drew on styles and cultures all over the world. The PCO was the realisation of this dream, and A Brief History shows off the huge range of influences which shaped the PCO's charmingly unique and eccentric sound. It's all in there, chirpy Celtic folk tunes, minimalist drones, choral chants; and through it all, an almost hypnotic rhythmic repetitiveness which brings a dreamy, sleepy quality to even the livelier tunes.
Today, Jeffes' music remains delightfully unclassifiable, whilst its accessibility makes it beloved of advertisers and Café del Mar chill-out album compilers alike. In the 70s however the PCO was radical, even revolutionary, catching the attention of Brian Eno who signed them to his Obscure label. Other evidence of Jeffes' eclecticism; brought in as producer by Malcolm McLaren to raise Adam and the Ants from punk to pop and chart stardom; arranged the strings on Sid Vicious' version of "My Way". Need I say more?
A review cannot really do credit to this album. The PCO is a legend, and the music on A Brief History tells the story of an immensely creative and joyous force in music. Irrepressibly chirpy, irresistibly quirky and undeniably original, here is music to bring sunshine to a Sunday morning."
(from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/vcgb)

[TRACKLIST]
1) Beanfields (00:00)
2) Telphone And Rubber Band (04:31)
3) Music For A Found Harmonium (07:00)
4) Perpetuum Mobile (10:37)
5) From The Colonies (15:08)
6) Giles Farnaby's Dream (18:28)
7) Surface Tension (22:35)
8) Air A Danser (25:01)
9) Yodel 1 (29:32)
10) Numbers 1-4 (33:42)
11) Steady State (40:37)
12) Paul's Dance (44:11)
13) Prelude & Yodel (45:57)
14) Heartwind (49:54)
15) White Mischief (54:06)
16) Dirt (59:57)
17) Rosasolis (1:04:47)
18) Organum (1:09:05)
19) Lullaby (1:12:55)