Penguin Cafe official site | Penguin Cafe on Facebook | Penguin Cafe on Twitter | Penguin Cafe on Soundcloud | Penguin Cafe on YouTube

Penguin Cafe was founded by Arthur Jeffes in 2009, bringing together a talented and disparate group of musicians from the likes of Suede, Gorillaz and Razorlight, 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, with the spellbinding philosophy of the Penguin Cafe always in his mind.

Arthur utilizes many different instruments and influences including elements of African, Venezuelan, Brazilian, Bluegrass, Classical, Avant-Garde & Minimalist music, using a variety of instruments from strings, pianos, harmoniums, slide guitars, cuatros, kalimbas, experimental sound loops, mathematical notations and more.

To date, Arthur’s Penguin Cafe has released two acclaimed albums of fresh, innovative and beautiful music that have achieved the seemingly impossible feat of creating something new and different and still exciting the worldwide fan base of original PCO followers.

Arthur and the Penguins are currently in the studio recording the new album ‘The Imperfect Sea’, a collection of dance records made on real instruments, for release early 2017 accompanied by live dates in the UK, USA, Japan and further international touring throughout the year.

Photo Credit: Alex Kozobolis

Rival Consoles official site | Rival Consoles on erasedtapes.com | Rival Consoles on Soundcloud | Rival Consoles on Facebook | Rival Consoles on Bandcamp | Rival Consoles on Twitter

London-based producer Ryan Lee West, better known under the name Rival Consoles, is notable for making synthesisers sound human and atmospheric.

It’s rarely reported that Rival Consoles was Erased Tapes’ very first signing, with a CDR of early demos under the name Aparatec that inspired founder Robert Raths to start the label in 2007. Indeed West has more in common with his contemporaries Nils Frahm and Peter Broderick than some might think. His consistent desire to create a more organic, humanised sound sees West often draft early ideas on traditional, acoustic instruments like the guitar or the piano; forming pieces that capture a sense of songwriting behind the electronics.

Fascinated by sound from an early age, Ryan chose to dedicate his time to studying and producing sound, graduating from De Montfort University in his hometown Leicester. In the early years as a recording artist West continued to experiment with a broad palette of electronic sounds, from his emotive yet glitch-heavy Vemeer EP, The Decadent EP and 2009’s Helvetica, to the French electro-inspired full-length albums IO and Kid Velo, released in 2011.

It was with the release of his Odyssey and Sonne EPs in 2013 and 2014 that West started gaining more of a reputation for making thoughtful electronica that spans a wider spectrum of musical ideas. Foremost a guitarist, growing up listening to rock rather than club music, his last full-length album Howl released in 2015 saw West strive towards finding a more personal balance between music for home listening and larger spaces.

Having repeatedly performed at such prestigious venues as the Tate, and having created a bespoke audio-visual performance for Boiler Room at the V&A Museum, the blueprint for West’s current live A/V show was formed. Featuring self-programmed visuals in Max/MSP has earned him appearances at music festivals around the world including Moogfest, FORM, Mutek, Big Ears, Lovebox and Berghain’s Pop-Kultur Festival, as well as tours in support of Clark, Nosaj Thing, Luke Abbott and Kiasmos.

2016 marked the release of Ryan’s new mini album Night Melody, born out of and shaped by long hours working into the night. Having previously remixed the likes of Jon Hopkins, Vessels, Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm, further commissions followed from Max Cooper, Noisia, Sasha and UNKLE band Toydrum. 2017 will see West continue touring in support of Night Melody before locking himself away to start work on his next offering.

Rubin Kodheli official site

“Are Blues in Space a metal band? Art-rock? Avant garde? Yes, all of the above and more. This time out bandleader/cellist Rubin Kodheli was backed by a powerfully propulsive drummer. Bands like Blues in Space make a good battering ram: they destroy boundaries. It would make as much sense for them to do Bang on a Can as it would for them to do Ozzfest or for that matter take up residency at a place like Barbes.” – Lucid Culture

Composer Rubin Kodheli (ko-thé-lee) is a celebrated, versatile, genre-transcending creative rebel. The inspirational tapestry of his work is intentionally woven from blended threads of rock, jazz and classical influences, a stylistic trademark that has afforded Kodheli a career rich in its diversity of output. From his compositions appearing in feature films such as Precious (2009), to his original symphonic rock compositions, to his collaborations as a performer with premier improviser composers of our time– including Dave Douglas, Henry Threadgill, Meredith Monk and Tom Harrell.

Recently Mr.Kodheli has been performing Letters to Jack, created by the amazing and legendary writer, composer, filmmaker Laurie Anderson.

Kodheli’s eclectic work amounts to an intriguing sonic collage able to enrapture and captivate audiences.

Kodheli began his musical journey as a cellist in Albania, where, as a child, he would stay up into the night absorbing celebratory performances of traditional Albanian folk music or spend days attending numerous rehearsals with his mother, singer and actress Justina Aliaj (a-lee-i). By age fifteen, he moved to Belgium to pursue formal studies at l’Académie d’Uccle and later to Germany to attend the Richard Strauss Konservatorium. In the 1990s Kodheli received a scholarship to The Juilliard School, where he studied as a pupil of cello visionary Fred Sherry.

Post-Juilliard Kodheli’s own musical improv and work with dancers as well as with other improviser composers compelled him to learn composition. In 2013 choreographer Elisa Monte hired him to write a fifteen-minute piece for which they won a grant from New Music U.S.A.

Creating instrumental alchemy in his compositions and performances, Kodheli deftly molds the cello to emulate the timbre of a guitar, a drum, or a human voice; his rhythmic aptitudes and intuition for percussion enable him to play piano as well. His compositions teem with nuance, providing the opportunity to listen repeatedly, each time ripe with the possibility of hearing something that previously went unnoticed. Immersing audiences in honest musical explorations, Kodheli pushes listeners to engage, question and contemplate. Similarly, his compositional work empowers directors to drive home the emotional anchoring of their films.

This panoply of unique musical experiences, from childhood through the present, continues organically to guide and mold his work with filmmakers, rap artists, dancers, choreographers, fellow composers, and various other creative professionals in New York City, and around the world.