Penguin Cafe Shares 'Second Variety' In Honor of Piano Day

As part of their Piano Day 2023 celebrations, Erased Tapes are pleased to present 'Second Variety' - the new single by Arthur Jeffes' cult contemporary-minimal-folk troupe, Penguin Cafe.

With piano at its core, sparingly embellished by melodica, glockenspiel, electronics and pedal steel guitar, the track is warm yet wistful, plaintive yet positive -encapsulating key characteristics that many have come to love from the Cafe.

Of the track, Jeffes offers: "This piece came about in Italy where we've been staying quite a lot over the last few years. Time passes differently there - with this sense of endlessly repeating days and a kind of wistfulness stemming from knowing that tomorrow will be the same as yesterday. There is a kind of peace in that, but also a feeling of time slipping through one's hands.

One day a musical friend from further North, Alessandro 'Asso' Stefana (who has worked with Mike Patton, PJ Harvey and Calexico), took advantage of a break between projects to come and visit. He brought lots of pedals and a lap steel, and we just tried things out. I ended up with a fairly sparse mix, as it captures the feeling of those days most clearly."

'Second Variety' follows the critically acclaimed 2019 album 'Handfuls Of Night', which was inspired by Arthur Jeffes' expedition where he re-created famous explorer Scott's last Antarctic trip in 1911. This was followed by the 10th anniversary reissue of their debut album, titled 'A Matter of Life... 2021'.

Besides being remastered and pressed on vinyl for the first time, the record features a new recording of lead single 'Harry Piers' - a song commemorating Arthur Jeffes' late father and Penguin Cafe Orchestra founder, Simon Jeffes.

Listen to the new single here: