A familiar name at Jazz à la Villette, GoGo Penguin is taking to the stage to share the wonder of their new and sumptuous album. In it, the English trio has struck a new balance between electronic and acoustic, with novel textures and sunny melodies.

GoGo Penguin has been charting a unique path across the seas of modern jazz for almost a quarter of a century, cresting the waves of electronic and repetitive music. Following a period of personal and artistic reconstruction resulting in the highly introspective Everything Is Going to Be OK in 2023, the Manchester trio has now rediscovered a certain serenity and a taste for new horizons. And it’s precisely that that permeates Necessary Fictions, their seventh album released in summer 2025, which was patiently crafted in a studio transformed into an experimental laboratory. Through it, Chris Illingworth (piano), Nick Blacka (bass), and Jon Scott (drums) prove themselves to be true to the group’s identity while on their quest for new timbres, upping their use of modular synths and integrating the strings of the Manchester Collective onto two of their tracks. By orchestrating a dialogue between acoustic and electronic, undulating melodies and inventive arrangements, GoGo Penguin is marking a new captivating chapter in an undoubtedly impressive discography.