''Signs of Life'' is the fourth studio album by the

Penguin Cafe Orchestra The Penguin Cafe Orchestra (PCO) were an avant-pop band led by English guitarist Simon Jeffes. Co-founded with cellist Helen Liebmann, it toured extensively during the 1980s and 1990s. The band's sound is not easily categorized, having elemen ...

. It was recorded at the Penguin Cafe between 1985 and 1987 and released in March 1987. It includes "Perpetuum Mobile", one of their most famous pieces. The album reached number 49 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

Track listing

All music composed by

Simon Jeffes Simon Harry Piers Jeffes (19 February 1949 – 11 December 1997) was an English classically trained guitarist, composer and arranger. He formed, and was the primary performer of, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. He was the composer of the ballet ''Sti ...

Side one

# "Bean Fields" - 4:20 # "Southern Jukebox Music" - 4:39 # "Horns of the Bull" - 4:32 # "Oscar Tango" - 3:12 # "The Snake and the Lotus (The Pond)" - 2:57 # "Rosasolis" - 4:12

Side two

# "Dirt" - 4:46 # "Sketch" - 3:19 # "Perpetuum Mobile" - 4:26 # "Swing the Cat" - 3:19 # "Wildlife" - 10:54

Personnel

- ''Ukelele/Violin/Omnichord (1), Bluthner Piano (2), Fretless Guitar/Ring Modulation (3), Bluthner and Bosendorfer Piano (4), Bass Guitar/Soloban Shakers (5), Omnichord/Prophet V (6), Rhythm Violins/Whistles (7), Cuatros/Ukelele/Bass/Drum (8), Bosendorfer Piano/Prophet V/Drum (9), Violins/Cuatro (10), Triangles/Guitar/Tape (11)'' *Danny Cummins - ''Percussion (6), Shakare (7)'' *

Helen Liebmann Helen Liebmann was a founding member (along with Simon Jeffes) of the avant garde music group Penguin Cafe Orchestra in 1973. A cellist, she studied at the Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the olde ...

- ''Cello (1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11)'' *Bob Loveday - ''Violins/Bass (2), Harmony Violin (4), Violins (6), Solo Violin (7), Violins (9), Kalimba (10)'' *

Steve Nye Steve Nye is an English music producer for several artists. Career Nye started out as a tape op at AIR Studios in London in 1971, where producer Rupert Hine discovered him. There he got into engineering (and later producing) many well-known a ...

- ''Bluthner Piano (1), Wurlitzer Piano (7)'' *Elizabeth Perry - ''Violins (4, 9)'' *Neil Rennie - ''Cuatro (1), Ukelele (7)'' * Geoffrey Richardson - ''Viola (2, 4, 6)'' *Gavyn Wright - ''Violins (4, 9)''

Other information

"Perpetuum Mobile" was sampled by

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

Avicii Tim Bergling (; 8 September 1989 – 20 April 2018), known professionally as Avicii (, ), was a Swedish DJ, remixer and music producer. At the age of 16, Bergling began posting his remixes on electronic music forums, which led to his first rec ...

in his 2011 single "Penguin," aka " Fade into Darkness", which in turn was sampled by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

recording artist A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

Leona Lewis Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer, songwriter, actress and activist. Born and raised in the London Borough of Islington, she attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. Lewis achieved nationa ...

in her 2011 single " Collide". Additionally, the song was used as the main theme for the film ''

Mary and Max ''Mary and Max'' is a 2009 Australian independent stop-motion adult-animated comedy-drama film written and directed by Adam Elliot and was his first animated feature film. The film was produced by Melanie Coombs and Melodrama Pictures with mus ...

''.

References

{{Authority control 1987 albums Penguin Cafe Orchestra albums Albums produced by Simon Jeffes E.G. Records albums