Arthur William Phoenix Young Jeffes (born 21 July 1978,

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

, London, England) is an English composer, musician, and arctic explorer. He is the frontman of the musical group Penguin Cafe, a group he formed in 2007 to play the music of his father's band, the

Penguin Cafe Orchestra The Penguin Cafe Orchestra (PCO) was an avant-pop band led by English guitarist Simon Jeffes. Co-founded with cellist Helen Liebmann, the band toured extensively during the 1980s and 1990s. The band's sound is not easily categorized, having ...

. He is one half of the band Sundog.

Early life

Jeffes was born in London to the artist

Emily Young Emily Young FRBS (born 1951) is a British sculptor, who has been called "Britain's greatest living stone sculptor". She was born in London into a family of artists, writers and politicians. She currently divides her time between studios in Londo ...

and musician and composer

Simon Jeffes Simon Harry Piers Jeffes (19 February 1949 – 11 December 1997) was an English classically trained guitarist, composer and arranger. He formed, and was the primary performer of, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. He was the composer of the ballet ''S ...

. Jeffes's interest in experimental music was recognised by his father when he took a hammer to the keys of his father's piano. He read Archaeology and Anthropology at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

Penguin Cafe

In 2007, original members of

performed a series of three memorial concerts, with Arthur Jeffes performing onstage with the band for the first time, to mark ten years since Simon Jeffes' death. Encouraged by the public response to the Union Chapel concerts, which all sold out, Jeffes decided that keeping his father's music alive was a worthwhile endeavour. He founded a new band, Penguin Cafe, with a new line-up, including Cass Browne of

Gorillaz Gorillaz are an English virtual band created by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett in London, England in 1998. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (gui ...

Neil Codling Neil John Codling (born 5 December 1973) is an English musician and songwriter, best known as the keyboardist, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and co-songwriter for the alternative rock band Suede. Early life Neil Codling was raised in St ...

Suede Suede (pronounced ) is a type of leather with a fuzzy, napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, Textile, fabrics, Handbag, purses, furniture, and other items. Suede is made from the underside of the animal skin, which is softer and m ...

, Oli Langford of

Florence and the Machine Florence and the Machine (stylised as Florence + the Machine) are an English indie rock band formed in London in 2007 by lead vocalist Florence Welch, keyboardist Isabella Summers, guitarist Rob Ackroyd, drummer Christopher Lloyd Hayden and harp ...

and Darren Berry of

Razorlight Razorlight are an English indie rock band, formed in 2002 in London by lead singer and guitarist Johnny Borrell. Along with Borrell, the current line-up of the band is composed of founding members Björn Ågren on guitar and bassist Carl Dalem ...

. Penguin Cafe have performed on stage playing works of

and their own pieces.

International Space Orchestra

In 2012, Jeffes was commissioned by the artist Nelly Ben-Hayoun to write several pieces for the NASA

Kepler space telescope The Kepler space telescope is a defunct space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orb ...

mission, to be played by the International Space Orchestra. The pieces "1420" and "Aurora" were beamed into space in 2013. "1420" was inspired by the

WOW! signal The Wow! signal was a strong narrowband radio signal detected on August 15, 1977, by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope in the United States, then used to support the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The signal appeare ...

Other work

Jeffes has also formed recording duos with violinist Oli Langford as Sundog, and with pianist Mark Springer as Aparat.

Discography

;Penguin Cafe * '' A Matter of Life...'' (2011) * ''The Red Book'' (2014) * ''The Imperfect Sea'' (2017) * ''Handfuls of Night'' (2019) * ''Rain Before Seven...'' (2023) ;Sundog * ''Insofar'' (2012) ;Aparat * ''Aparat'' (2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffes, Arthur 1978 births Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge English folk musicians English jazz musicians English male composers Chamber jazz musicians Living people Musicians from the City of Westminster Penguin Cafe members People from Paddington