Tom Penaguin

The Canterbury Scene extends well beyond the usual geographical boundaries and it seems, is also exerting an influence amongst an increasingly younger generation of musicians. France’s Tom Penaguin is one such example. The multi-instrumentalist’s self-titled album of original compositions while being clearly influenced by the tone and timbre of the likes Egg, National Health, and other luminaries, brings his own idiosyncratic stamp of authority to music boasting quirky time signatures, complex arrangements and strikingly melodic themes.

Now in his late 20s and playing guitar with stoner post-rock outfit, Djiin, Penaguin was captivated by all things Canterbury as a teenager. “I was 14 or 15 years old. I heard a specific sound on a record. I don’t know which one. And I was like, ‘what’s this instrument? I love the sound.’ What is it? It was a pianet,” he says, with some passion, describing the electric piano that is a feature of Egg and early Soft Machine.

The record has been a long time coming, he says. “I’ve been wanting to do this album since I was 17. Everything was written the last few years but it took me ten years to know what I wanted to sound like, where I wanted to put things, what kind of instruments I wanted to play, and so on, and of course, there are a lot of songs that I ditched during the process.”

Having put the entire album together by playing all the instruments himself, he’s rather akin to a watchmaker constructing a complex and highly articulated mechanism filled with rapidly moving parts. “What I like in Canterbury is the very small, intricate parts that are seamlessly glued to one another. I really like that kind of composition.” Bookended by tape collages and brimming with fuzzed organ and blissed-out guitar, the result is a modern-day Canterbury scene classic.

Track titles such as //Housefly Leg//, //Aborted Long Piece No.2// and //Arrival Of The Great Hedgehog//, also demonstrate something of the whimsical humour found on many Canterbury-related records. “When I’m writing an album, I absolutely don’t care about the titles. For me, it’s track one, track two and so on but I knew I’d have to find real names and if it doesn’t necessarily mean anything, well, at least it can be funny. //Arrival Of The Great Hedgehog// for example derives from the fact that I was at my parent’s house and there’s a lot of hedgehogs in the garden at night. I thought that maybe it would be fun to honour the hedgehog rummaging about in the leaves.”

Although the album is redolent with fluent keyboard playing Pengaguin says his true musical heart lies elsewhere. “I think guitar is the instrument where I can express myself more easily because I’ve playing it for 22 years now. I’m not saying I’m good. I’m saying I’m used to it. However, these days I see myself less and less as a guitarist and more and more as a composer, because that’s what I like doing the most.” SS

PROG FILE

LINE-UP: Tom Penaguin:
Fender Rhodes MK2
Cembalet II
Yamaha YC20
Hohner Pianet T
Hohner String Melody
Moog Matriarch
Squier Precision bass
Yamaha Rydeen drum kit
Goya Rangemaster
Gibson SG
Gibson Les Paul Goldtop

SOUNDS LIKE: Stravinsky and Zappa walk into a restaurant and the waiter asks “Would you like some Egg with your National Health?”

CURRENT RELEASE: //Tom Penaguin// is out now

WEBSITE: amarxe.bandcamp.com/album/tom-penaguin

— Sid Smith