The British GoGo Penguin, by critics hailed as the UK version of the trio The Bad Plus have released the third album in their career, their fist one for the noted label Blue Note Records.
The album Man Made Object was described as a CD that explores given genre boundaries and combines minimalist piano themes, explicit base lines and electronic inspired drums. After their premier performance in America at this year’s Winter Jazzfest, numerous media sources have been writing about the trio from Manchester consisting of pianist Chris Illingworth, bassist Nick Blacka and drummer Rob Turner. Their first American tour, set for April, will end with a concert at New York’s (Le) Poisson Rouge, where they held their first performance in the United States this January.
“The name of the new album is inspired by my fascination with the ideas of robotics and transhumanism”, says Illingworth. “We make electronic music with acoustic instruments. That’s like an object made by human hand and brought to life, while it, at the same time bares a different meaning for each and every one of us. We hope the listener feels the same way.”
When they speak about the music that influenced their sound today, The GoGo Penguin members mention Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Massive Attack, Brian Eno, Debussy and Shostakovich.
GoGO Penguin released their first album Fanfares in 2010, only two years later followed by the second, v2.0 which won them a Mercury prize for album of the year.