In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Be Here Now, electronic producers Jon Hopkins and East Forest join Raghu to talk, Sit Around The Fire, their new Ram Dass music meditation experience.

Jon Hopkins is a Grammy-nominated electronic music producer who has created alongside Brian Eno, Coldplay, & David Holmes. In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Be Here Now, Jon has come together with digital music shaman, East Forest, in creation of Sit Around The Fire, a dynamic music-meditation featuring Ram Dass, and accented with moving art from the original brown pages of Be Here Now. This special track, dropping Sept 2nd, will be part of Jon Hopkins’ new album Music For Psychedelic Therapy available everywhere November 6th 2021.

“It’s not a simple piece, but it was writing itself. And never have a felt so much just like a vessel. This place was pouring it’s wisdom into the sound.” – Jon Hopkins

Watch the music video here: Jon Hopkins with Ram Dass, East Forest - Sit Around The Fire (Official Video)

Ep. 406 - Sit Around The Fire W Jon Hopkins East Forest & Raghu Markus

Ahead of the release of their much anticipated 10th Anniversary Remastered Edition of A Matter of Life… 2021, Penguin Cafe share the remastered studio version of the album's closing piece Coriolis, along with a video of Arthur Jeffes performing a 2021 live rendition of the song on the dulcitone in his second home in Tuscany.

Watch: https://youtu.be/Kt0A8vWyM5k

The remastered track, a duet between Arthur Jeffes on piano and Oli Langford on violin, incorporates the aesthetics of the original PCO, seasoned into a confident and redefined style, maintaining that quintessentially English sound, but adding a fresh direction and a sense that they are evolving into something new and very much their own.

"The version of Coriolis that ended up on the record is actually a mix of several takes we recorded on a very slow, cosy day in the studio. It had been raining for days and Oli, our violinist, and I had the basic idea and played around with it. In the end the initial recordings sounded so beautiful I just cut together the best parts to make it into the song we have here. It always makes me think of rain."

Penguin Cafe will be performing songs from the album live at the Barbican Hall tonight, on March 22, the day this single gets released, followed by a UK festival tour this summer including The Great Escape. The album will be released via Erased Tapes on April 29.    

"Some of the most unusual and delightful music of the last 40 years” — The Guardian
“Stylistically, A Matter of Life… is a near-perfect match with the Penguin Cafe Orchestra of old” — Music OMH

Tour Dates:

22.03. London (UK) — The Barbican Centre
29.04. Belfast (IE) — The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival (with Peter Broderick)
01.05. Cheltenham (UK) — Cheltenham Jazz Festival
12.05. Brighton (UK) — The Great Escape — Erased Tapes 十五 showcase
14.05. Saffron Walden (UK) — Saffron Hall
29.05. Hay-on-Wye (UK) — Hay Festival
01.07. Swadlincote (UK) — Timber Festival
29.07. Barnsley (UK) — Underneath The Stars Festival
24.09. Stroud (UK) — Hidden Notes (sold out)

A Matter of Life... 2021

Coriolis

Penguin Cafe - Coriolis

The Silver Tree

Devotion

In Exile

Credits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G4kCi_ldr8&list=RD3G4kCi_ldr8&start_radio=1

Jon Hopkins - Sit Around The Fire (FillingFive Edit)

Robert Rich & Lisa Moskow - "Bija" (Yearning)

Dawn Chorus

East London Street - Hidden Orchestra

This is an unofficial remix i made using basic tools and programs... made for fun only without any economic benefits from it.

Damascus Conjure One Unofficial Remix

Ólafur Arnalds - Woven Song. A piano cover by Alex Krasnoskulov

Ólafur Arnalds - Woven Song | Piano Cover

Helios - emancipation

Available to buy tinyurl.com/acousticbeats

The Just Music Café double album “Acoustic & Beats 01” extends over two separate CD albums the musical boundaries of acoustic guitar into symphonic composition, modern jazz, classically inspired mood music, folksy whimsy, textural ambience and muscular electronica. Both the Acoustic CD1 and the Beats CD2 are lovingly sequenced and mixed by DJ Ben Mynott to create an exquisite and total Just Music listening experience.

"The mix is further evidence that right now, this label is probably the most on the ball – not just musically but emotionally – on the entire planet"
Pete Lawrence (The Big Chill’s founder)

Just Music artists all have exceptional artistic and musical ability. From the ambient mastery of Jon Hopkins (“musical genius” IDJ) through the chilled beats of Honeyroot, (“one of the best albums of the year.” Future Music), the composition of Future Loop Foundation ( “epic downbeat”” DJ Magazine)to the acoustic beauty of Dan Arborise , (“beguiling acoustic guitar” UNCUT) all of Just Music’s artist roster share a depth to their music - whether they draw on their background in classical or electronica or from their all encompassing roots level musical lifestyle.

This compilation succinctly expresses what Just Music stands for as a label, and how the artists form the label as a whole – the understated irony of the label’s name is the essence of its appeal…at the end of the day, it may just be music, but in this case with a rare power to quietly shake the soul.

The Fading Room Memories & Remixes

Everything As It Should Be

Future Loop Foundation - Everything as it Should Be

The Best in Left of Centre Music.

We believe in working in partnership with our artists to offer the very best in cutting edge electronica, acoustic, ambient & down-tempo.

Independent label of some of the very best in artists in cutting-edge electronica, acoustic, ambient, down-tempo and nonclassical. 

"It may be just music, but in this case with a rare power to quietly shake the soul" - Pete Lawrence (Big Chill founder)

Future Loop Foundation - Everything as it Should Be

Just Music Label