Gogo Penguin Between Two Waves

Recorded at the end of 2021, Between Two Waves, marks the latest chapter in the story of GoGo Penguin. It's announced today for a July 1st release via XXIM Records/Sony.

Between Two Waves captures a magical moment, as the band regroup after the strange, challenging and at times, tragic couple of years which preceded it. Chris Illingworth explains:

“It was an incredibly meaningful moment for us to be together as a band along with our producers Joe and Brendan, sharing meals like family, enjoying drinks and jokes after long days of work and, most importantly, making music together after so long apart”.

With a new line-up, drummer Jon Scott joined pianist Chris Illingworth and bassist Nick Blacka a few months before the recording sessions at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, and a new label, XXIM Records, for the band it represented both business as usual with a welcome return to the recording studio, but also something of a fresh start. A chance to explore new ideas and experiment, as they expanded the range of sounds and voices within the tracks, and the Eurorack modular and Moog synths found their places between their signature piano, double-bass and drums on tracks like "Badeep," "Wave Decay" and "Lost in Thought."

Another feature which brought something new to the recording was the Palm Mute Pedal developed by Danish pianist Otto Sammy. Otto sent the band a prototype which would feature on both The "Antidote Is in the Poison" and "Wave Decay." It’s a remarkable invention, a custom pedal allows Illingworth to mute and effect the sound of the strings live as he plays, and while not a million miles away from the string muting techniques used on earlier tracks such as Bardot, it offers a new palate for the band, it’s still the acoustic piano but sounds almost electronic in effect and often closer in sound to the synths. A perfect solution for a band whose signature sound has been dubbed acoustic-electronica and who look to bring those worlds together in their music.