What Are You Listening To?

[Ruby]

Penguin Cafe - The Red Book



Released in 2014, the precursor to 2017's The Imperfect Sea, which I like very much. Decided to listen to this one and will then go back to their first album, A Matter of Life. 

Always enjoy checking out who's playing what, and while doing so, found this tidbit on Discogs re the naming of the album:

"The name ‘The Red Book’ comes from the book by Karl Jung of the same name. One day early on in the recording process Rebecca (our cellist) asked me what the album was going to be called and as I glanced over I saw this book on the desk next to where she was and it popped into my head to say ‘The Red Book?’. The book is about, among other things, the way our sub-conscious interacts with and intrudes into our daily lives. I thought this fitted what we were trying to achieve with the second album quite neatly – namely, exploring musical words that are at once both familiar and strange. There is another meaning which is that the main mastered disc you end up with, the one from which all other copies will be made, is called the ‘Red Book Master’ – so somewhere at some point there will be a disc on which will be written ‘The Red Book Master – Red Book Master’…" https://www.discogs.com/Penguin-Cafe-The-Red-Book/release/5410203?ev=rr

Seven of the 11 tracks pass muster - the others were a bit too looping and repetitive (which is a construct they use quite a lot) so on the whole, The Imperfect Sea remains a better listen for me. Modern classical - some say chamber jazz - I dunno - just know that when they get it right, they make lovely warm waves of sound that it's a pleasure to sink into. 

Like this one ... the first track on The Red Book ...