Few bands have been compared to ambient maestro Brian Eno, electro eccentric Aphex Twin, trip hop pioneers Massive Attack and minimalist composer Philip Glass.

If you listen to GoGo Penguin, however, the associations make sense. For the Englishmen's style-creating fusion jazz is driven by an openness and curiosity that, with its jazzy blue tones and spherical beats, transcends traditional genre distinctions.

GoGo Penguin was formed in 2012 by pianist Chris Illingworth, bassist Nick Blacka and drummer Rob Turner. They released their debut album the same year with Fanfares, which in 2013 was nominated as jazz album of the year at legendary radio DJ Gilles Peterson's award show Worldwide Awards.

The big breakthrough came in 2014 with the sequel v2.0, which was nominated for the prestigious British album award Mercury Prize and secured them a recording contract with iconic Blue Note Records (Miles Davis, Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock).

In total, GoGo Penguin has released seven studio albums, the latest of which, Necessary Fictions, was released in June 2025 to rave reviews. Mojo gave it 4 out of 5 stars and wrote: “The trio return with 12 mesmeric tracks that are a love letter to their native south Manchester”. Popmatters gave it an 8 out of 10, while Clash gave the album a 7 out of 10 and called it “GoGo Penguin's most adventurous record to date”.

GoGo Penguins have visited both Amager Bio and DR Koncerthuset with successful shows in recent years. It will therefore be guaranteed to please many Danish music lovers that the trio will soon return to Denmark when they present their new songs live at Store VEGA on May 4, 2026.