GoGo Penguin’s ‘Saturnine’ Leans Into Blissful Melancholia

GoGo Penguin have shared new song ‘Saturnine’.

The long-standing collective have deep roots in various spheres of improvisatory music, building a unique catalogue in the process. Loosely jazz meets electronics in a modern classical sphere, the group have essentially built their own genre from the ground up.

Freshly signed to XXIM Records, GoGo Penguin played two sold out shows at London’s KOKO at the tail end of 2022, unveiling new material in the process. New album ‘Everything Is Going To Be OK’ lands on April 14th, with the group now sharing ‘Saturnine’.

The vibe dips into those early 90s rave tracks – think AFX – in its evocation of tantalising melancholia, this sense of euphoria and sadness dipping into one. Riffing on those breakbeats, there’s also a soundtrack quality, with GoGo Penguin remaining supreme sonic engineers.

Discussing the song, GoGo Penguin comment…

The main synth line for this track had been in our pot of ideas for a while but the original version was much quicker and a bit darker. One day I was improvising with it when Nick came into the room and said, ‘try playing it this speed’ and gave me a much slower tempo. It was perfect, suddenly it had a real character and the ideas started flowing.

I asked him ‘what gave you the idea to slow it down?’ and he told me it was the lucky cat. [Nick] In our studio we have a lucky cat, like the ones you sometimes see in Chinese restaurants. Its arm makes a clicking sound when it waves, reminiscent of a metronome. It was a strange place to find inspiration, but it was just what we needed for this track.

The title felt apt as one day we were discussing it and Chris mentioned how he felt it sounded a bit sad and melancholic. It hadn’t really occurred to me up until this point as I was more focused on it sounding quite bouncy and poppy to my ears. I think it’s a bit of both, but we find it’s fascinating that we can be working on the same track at the same time and yet experience it differently whilst doing so.

Tune in now.