Handfuls of Night

There are multiple associations that weave around this fourth studio album from Penguin Cafe, Arthur Jefes' successor ensemble to his father Simon's classic Penguin Cafe Orchestra original, all related to the North and South Poles. The album grew out of a commission from Greenpeace for Jeffes to write a quartet of pieces inspired by four breeds of penguins, to help draw attention to environmental trouble in the Antarctic sea. Some years previously, Jeffes had joined an expedition inspired by Scott's tragic Antarctic journey in 1911. In the event, the journey had to end up taking place in the Arctic, but Jeffes has spent significant time in the icy wilds, inspiration for this record.

Beyond narrative, there is the music, and it's handily incidental that Jefes' music – gently unfolding, glacial, minimalist – can be heard as a musical evocation of the landscape of the far north and south. On Handfuls of Night, the Penguin Cafe world of strings (gut-stringed), percussion, pianos, synth and harmonium create a static, filmic landscape of sound, gradually unfolding. There are beautiful melodies – especially ‘The Life of an Emperor’ – but the interest is often in the imperceptibly undulating movement from theme to theme. It requires – but rewards – some patient listening.