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The Penguin Cafe Orchestra

I remember hearing Erik Satie's first Gymnopédie at a very early age and being mesmerized and haunted by the melody, each time a would hear it, these weird feelings would brew up inside me. How could such a simple melody have so much affect on me? I was no music aficionado (I might have heard it first when I was approximately four!) at the time. I only found out through a friend at the age of sixteen who actually composed the piece. It was like old friends finally meeting after years apart. There was only one other song that had the exact same effect on me and for which I went through a similar history: it was Music For A Found Harmonium by The Penguin Cafe Orchestra. I remember hearing it when I was very young during an interlude on a french-canadian public access channel on television (somewhere between two cartoons during a rainy afternoon). I remember the song burning itself into my brain. I remember hearing it very irregularly through television, film and even radio and it having the same effect on me every single time. And like the Satie piece, when I finally found out who had composed it back in the days when I was working in a music store in downtown Montreal, it felt like closure. I rapidly bought everything they did and have been a huge fan ever since.

PCO was founded by Simon Jeffes and they created some of the most unique brand of music out there. Their sound is quite difficult to pinpoint and it has often been categorized as New Age, something I still don't understand today. Their music is often repetitive and sounds simple on the surface (like Satie again), but when you listen closely, their is such complexity in their work that it demands to be listened to again and again. There is plenty to find and discover with each listen. It's never quite like classical composition, it's never quite rock, sometimes it's plain bizarre and at others psychedelic as hell. And sometimes it's everything all at once, but there is such a sense of control in their music that it never sounds chaotic. Most importantly, this music is incredibly beautiful and charming and aims straight for the gut. it might be slightly too bizarre for some listeners, but it will hypnotize anyone with an open mind.

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