Echoes August CD of the Month: Rain Before Seven by Penguin Cafe
Penguin Café‘s Rain Before Seven is Echoes’ August CD of the Month. The Penguin Café Orchestra launched in 1976 on Brian Eno‘s Obscure Label. After founder Simon Jeffes died, his son Arthur Jeffes took over and the music continues to be one-of-a-kind, 21st century sound. When you talk about ambient chamber music, you have to start with the Penguin Café Orchestra who combined classical and folk motifs with a nostalgic, yet contemporary modality. Arthur, is continuing this spirit with a new ensemble configuration and new music. It remains a sound in its own world and one you want to be in. Their new album, Rain Before Seven is the August CD of the Month. Bring your umbrella because it’s going to be all all over Echoes tonight.
Read John Diliberto’s review.
Hear it on Echoes Online Right Now!
VENICE, ITALY – APRIL 02: Irish singer Sinead O’Connor during the first concert of “THE CRAZY BALDHEAD TOUR” at the Teatro la Fenice and for the first time in Venice. April 02, 2013 in Venice, Italy
Weekend listeners may also hear our tribute to Sinead O’Connor, the iconic Irish singer-songwriter, who left us on July 26, 2023. Born on December 8, 1966, in Dublin, Ireland, Sinead rose to prominence in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra in 1987. That album blew everyone away with singing that was both powerful and aggressive as well as serene and soulful. Then there was he definitive rendition of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” in 1990. The video for that one remains indelible. Then there was that thing on Saturday Night Live that got too many people in an uproar and which SNL should’ve been a whole lot cooler and supportive about. But while that trashed her public reputation, Sinead kept going on, recording her own albums, exploring her spirituality, standing up for justice and human rights. We’re going to pay tribute to Sinead today, not with her hits, although I have one of them, but with some of her lesser known collaborations including Afro Celt Sound System, Massive Attack and Ghostland.