Simon Jeffes(1949-1997)
- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Born in Sussex in 1949, Simon Jeffes spent much of his early childhood
in Canada. He returned to the UK to study music in the late sixties. In
1972, he conceived the idea for The Penguin Cafe Orchestra, the
avant-garde (yet totally accessible) musical ensemble he would lead for
the rest of his life. The PCO would go on to record dozens of Jeffes'
instrumental compostions, which encompassed everything from classical
pieces to ambient experiments to outright hoedowns. Many of the PCO's
recordings were subsequently used in films and especially in television
commercials; many people will be familiar with PCO pieces such as
"Music For A Found Harmonium" (Independent newspaper), "Telephone and
Rubber Band" (various communications companies) or "Scherzo and Trio"
(Sears), even if they don't know the titles of these tunes (or even who
performed them). A posthumous album of Jeffes' solo piano compostions
was released in 2000.
