| 18 August 2009
The Queen’s Hall
13–15 August, 22.00
I’m not usually one to foot-tap or sway during sit-down shows, in fact it irritates me if I’m honest when neighbours develop suddenly into strumming beat-hunters, yet Music from the Penguin Café seem to take over my feet as they played at the Queen’s Hall. Our row of seats beating in time with the queer array of instruments on stage was a visible show of how well the folk orchestra had hooked us.
Though you may not have heard the band name (but you won’t forget it after seeing them), you will know their music. Patrium Nobile and others are embedded in the public’s hum-bank having been featured on various TV ads recently. The band’s story is unconventional, their charismatic front man Arthur Jeffes has taken over the family firm and resurrected his father, Simon Jeffes’, cult-status folk ensemble.
They are novel in story and novel in technique, two tin whistles are played simultaneously, piano strings are plucked and violas played with the back of bows. Rather than gimmicky, these sounds betray the immense skill of the group. Eight young, beautiful and energetic musical polymaths play a sort of mellow classical-folk hybrid that combines a natural catchiness with more sophisticated arrangements. The result is gorgeous, possibly more gorgeous than the band members (but only just).
From the dark and sultry Bramble to more hyperactive Swing the Cat, simple, lovely melodies are played upon in and built into complex sounds, These sometimes border on chaotic, taking the rhythm and pitch from one extreme to another.
You know it’s good when the set is way too short. I left wanting more – a new favourite band in the making so catch them whilst they’re here.
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