{"product_id":"penguin-cafe-orchestra-union-cafe","title":"Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Union Cafe","description":"Union Cafe was Penguin Cafe Orchestra's fifth and final studio album, released in 1993, six years after Signs of Life and the last record the group made before founder Simon Jeffes' death in 1997. Jeffes, a classically trained guitarist and composer working in the same minimalist lineage as Philip Glass and Steve Reich, built the record around unusual, often self-built instrumentation, including the electric aeolian harp he designed with Geoffrey Richardson and Mike Lesser.\n\nIt's a strange, warm, endlessly inventive record — chamber music with a sense of humour, arrangements that feel like they could fall apart at any moment but never quite do. Every listen reveals new details: unexpected instrumental choices, subtle compositional flourishes, genuine emotional warmth beneath the experimental surface.\n\nErased Tapes gave it its first-ever vinyl pressing, long overdue for a record this loved and this influential on generations of contemporary classical and ambient musicians.\n\nFFO: Erik Satie, Michael Nyman, Motion Trio","brand":"Erased Tapes","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":62023673381132,"sku":"12B-00254","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/12-bar.com\/products\/penguin-cafe-orchestra-union-cafe","provider":"12 Bar Music and Social","version":"1.0","type":"link"}