GoGo Penguin

Pianist Chris Illingworth, bass player Nick Blacka and drummer Rob Turner made a splash in jazz circles with their mix of jazzy themes, electronica, and rock with their band GoGo Penguin. Formed in Manchester in 2012, GoGo Penguin released an album that year titled Fanfares. They followed it with v2.0 (2014), which made the shortlist for the Mercury Prize, competing against albums by Damon Albarn, Young Fathers and Jungle. Signed by Blue Note Records, their 2016 release Man Made Object went to number 10 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart and reached number 72 on the UK Albums chart. Their music has been dubbed acoustic electronica but the threesome, who write their tunes together, say they draw equally from rock, jazz, minimalism, and games soundtracks. In 2017, they toured promoting their own original score for the 1982 documentary Koyaanisqatsi. Their 2018 live dates took them from England to Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany and on to the United States and Canada. Their 2018 album, A Humstrum Star, was released to critical acclaim and reached number 5 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. After tiding fans over with a 2019 EP entitled Ocean in a Drop (Music for Film), the band reemerged in 2020 with their self-titled fifth LP, which reached the Top 40 in Germany and Switzerland, as well as a live EP entitled Live from Studio 2. In 2021, founding drummer Rob Turner left the band and was replaced by Jon Scott. The group left Blue Note Records and released their next two albums independently: Between Two Waves (2022) and Everything Is Going to Be OK (2023).