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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]
Arthur Jeffes | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Arthur William Phoenix Young Jeffes |
| Born | 21 July 1978 Paddington, London, England |
| Genres | Chamber jazz, folk |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, explorer |
Early life
editJeffes 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
editIn 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.
International Space Orchestra
editIn 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.[8][9] The pieces "1420" and "Aurora" were beamed into space in 2013. "1420" was inspired by the WOW! signal.
Other work
editJeffes 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.
- ^ 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.