GOGO PENGUIN
When:
14 March 2015 (All day)
Chris Illingworth piano
Nick Blacka bass
Rob Turner drums
Manchester trio GoGo Penguin are hotly tipped as the rising stars of the UK Jazz scene. They are an exhilarating live act, drawing on a heady brew of influences from Aphex Twin to Shostakovich, Massive Attack to Manchester’s grey rain-streaked urban streets.
GoGo Penguin’s skittering break-beats, telepathic interplay and a penchant for anthemic melody all contribute to a sound that’s wholly their own. Pianist Chris Illingworth’s yearning classical influenced melodies are filtered through the dance music energy of bassist Nick Blacka and drummer Rob Turner. Their instrumentation might be the archetypal piano trio but while the melodic, harmonic and structural ideas are influenced by both classical and jazz the rhythms are drawn from left field electronica and it’s this meeting of opposites that makes their unique acoustic-electronica sound so exciting and creates such an interesting and emotionally rich palate for the listener - as drawing on a heady brew of influences from Brian Eno, John Cage and Squarepusher. Their album V2.0 (Gondwana Records) was a Mercury Prize album of the year 2014.
