Press room

Penguin Café + London Ambient Orchestra  
Saturday 25 February 2027, 7.30pm 
Barbican Hall 
Tickets from £34 plus booking fee

Barbican announces Penguin Cafe and London Ambient Orchestra who will join forces for a newly commissioned orchestral performance celebrating the legacy of the original avant-pop group Penguin Cafe Orchestra.  

For over five decades, Penguin Cafe Orchestra have captivated audiences with their iconic catalogue and signature blend of whimsy and experimentation. Next year in London, their timeless music will be reimagined in a newly curated programme by Penguin Café and alternative classical ensemble The London Ambient Orchestra. Beloved works including Music for a Found Harmonium and Perpetuum Mobile will be presented in expansive new orchestral arrangements specially created for this show.   

The performance will see Penguin Cafe collaborate with the London Ambient Orchestra, an improvisational ensemble whose fluid approach to orchestral performance reflects the diversity and creative energy of contemporary London. Together, the two groups bring fresh perspectives to a body of work renowned for its pioneering instrumentation. The collaboration forms part of the anniversary celebrations in 2027 marking 20 years of Erased Tapes - the influential independent label that has championed genre-defying artists including Nils Frahm, Rival Consoles and Ólafur Arnalds.  

About Penguin Cafe: 

Penguin Cafe was founded by Arthur Jeffes in 2009, bringing together a talented and disparate group of musicians initially to perform his father Simon Jeffes’ legacy of world-renowned Penguin Cafe Orchestra music, ten years after his untimely death in 1997. Arthur, a talented composer in his own right, quickly began to create new and unique genre-defying music, blending classical instruments like violins and cellos with unexpected elements like ukuleles and melodicas, the spellbinding philosophy of the Penguin Cafe always in his mind. Penguin Cafe has released five studio albums of original music on Erased Tapes Records.  

About The London Ambient Orchestra: 

The London Ambient Orchestra (TLAO) are an improvisational orchestra challenging the conventions of classical music, made up of improvisers and artists reflective of London’s rich cultural diversity. TLAO is an electro-acoustic melange where classical instruments stand side by side with pedal steel guitar, samplers and loops. Born out of extended jams in back rooms of music conservatories and hidden DIY studio spaces in east London, TLAO has gone on to numerous accolades including stand out sets at Wilderness Festival and live collaborations with the likes of Lubomyr Melnyk and Douglas Dare. 

Produced by the Barbican in association with Bird on the Wire 
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