As part of our Piano Day 2023 celebrations, we're pleased to present Second Variety — the new single by Arthur Jeffes’ Penguin Cafe.

With piano at its core, sparingly embellished by melodica, glockenspiel, electronics and pedal steel guitar, the track is warm yet wistful, plaintive yet positive — encapsulating key characteristics that many have come to love from the Cafe.

"This piece came about in Italy where we’ve been staying quite a lot over the last few years. Time passes differently there – with this sense of endlessly repeating days and a kind of wistfulness stemming from knowing that tomorrow will be the same as yesterday. There is a kind of peace in that, but also a feeling of time slipping through one’s hands.

One day a musical friend from further North, Alessandro ‘Asso’ Stefana, took advantage of a break between projects to come and visit. He brought lots of pedals and a lap steel, and we just tried things out. I ended up with a fairly sparse mix, as it captures the feeling of those days most clearly.” — Arthur Jeffes

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