Jazz-electronica trio GoGo Penguin break new ground on seventh album, Necessary Fictions, and take Wonderland on an exclusive track-by-track journey through its deeply authentic and ever-evolving sound.
Thirteen years in, GoGo Penguin haven’t just endured — they’ve evolved. With their seventh album, Necessary Fictions, the Manchester-based trio dives deeper into their signature fusion of jazz and electronica, deftly cinematic and vastly atmosphere. It is bold, potent, precise, experimental — a raw exploration of identity and authenticity shaped by over a decade of creative collaboration.
Recorded in their own studio, Necessary Fictions finds the band cohesively shaping a unique sonic world. There’s a stunningly haunting feature from singer-songwriter Daudi Matsiko, and collaborations with Manchester Collective and Rakhi Singh, further augmenting the album’s excellence.
With modular synths, field recordings, and rich textures expanding their sound, Necessary Fictions balances intimacy with scale, subtlety with musical daring. To commemorate the release, GoGo Penguin breaks down the album’s track-list exclusively for Wonderland.
Listen to the album…
The band share an overarching view:
“Necessary Fictions is about us attempting to speak honestly about who we are as human beings, musicians, and as a band. The title is about us striving to be as open and authentic as we can be, and shedding the protective mask that we develop in early life. Each person must find a way to operate in a complex world, and to us, this album is about looking at who we are and what we think are our integral, authentic qualities at this moment in time, as we move forwards into the future.”
Read through the track-by-track…
“Umbra”
The darkest part of the shadow. We all have a shadow self that we keep hidden from others — and even parts of it from ourselves. This is about the awareness of the shadow, and how it is often the place we don’t want to venture into, but which can be the greatest source of creativity.
“Fallowfield Loops”
One of our earliest ideas for this album. A great collaborative effort. We thought this track has a melancholic quality whilst also being danceable and punchy all at the same time. The title is a homage to our hometown of Manchester. The Fallowfield Loop is an old railway line close to where we live in South Manchester that is now a peaceful pathway of nature hidden in the city.
“Forgive the Damages”
This is our first-ever collaboration with a vocalist. We’ve often thought about working with other musicians, particularly vocalists, but it had to feel right and not forced. We’ve been friends with Daudi Matsiko for a long while now, and over the years we’ve talked about writing something together. Originally, we weren’t thinking of having vocals on this track. We had the chords and the melodic idea, but we were considering using field recordings, samples, or perhaps even some spoken word.
One weekend, around the time we were working on this track, Daudi randomly phoned as he’d flown into Manchester from a gig in Slovakia. I went to pick him up from the airport, and we sat in my garden and drank some beers. This is when I explained some of the overall concepts behind the album, and he went away and wrote some lyrics. He completely understood where we were coming from with this album. Everything clicked into place — it didn’t feel forced, and it definitely felt right.
We tweaked a few things together, and we asked for a ‘soaring vocal line’ at the end of the track. Daudi recorded the harmonised line that sings ‘forgive the damages’ near the end of the song, which is when we really felt we had something special.
“What We are and What We Are Meant to Be”
We used to have that moment of reticence when exploring ideas like this, often ending up asking ourselves if it’s okay to write something so different from what we’ve done in the past. It’s not just the synth lines and electronic elements — although they feature right up front in this track — but also the evolution in character, structure, and general approach from our earlier writing. That’s where the title comes from: the idea of shaking off the imagined outer perceptions and expectations people might have of us, and fully embracing who we are and what we want to say.
“Background Hiss Reminds me of Rain”
The original sketch for this was recorded on Chris’s phone after he wrote the idea at home. The quality of the recording was very lo-fi, but the atmosphere and vibe it brought were strong, with the audible key clicks and background noise adding even more emotion and character to the synth melody. When he played me the idea on his phone, I said that the background hiss reminded me of rain, and the working title stuck. It sounded a bit like a harmonium or something more organic than a synth, and when we came to record it in the studio, we experimented with samples of storms and rain alongside electrical noise, and placed a microphone above the synth as it was being played so that we could still hear the clicking sound of the keys.
“The Turn Within”
This title refers to the dropping of the persona that was a necessary part of our early adult lives. The illusion of control starts to dissipate, the outer ego role is challenged, and the inner true self begins to grow.
“Living Bricks in Dead Mortar”
More often than not, tracks take months of work, gradually tweaking, shaping, and refining the music until it clearly says what we want it to say. Then there are the rare times, like this, when a whole track just comes together almost immediately. We jammed this idea together in the studio, starting with the bass synth, and Chris improvised some chords over the top. We then knew we wanted it to have a darker quality when the drums come in. We really like these short tracks or interludes that bring a certain mood — one that just passes over you for a couple of minutes and then it’s gone again.
“Naga Ghost”
Over the years, we’ve expanded our palette of sounds and instruments, but at our core, the band’s DNA is still piano, bass, and drums. You can hear this right from the start in ”Naga Ghost”. However, the track takes an unexpected turn towards the end, morphing from an electronica-inspired but acoustically played piece into a synth-heavy finish with processed drums. It’s a shift in character that’s reflected well by the name Naga Ghost — a pepper with a fierce kick.
“Luminous Giants”
The second of three collaborations on the new album, this time with the amazing violinist Rakhi Singh and Manchester Collective. We invited Rakhi down to the studio to hear the demo, and she instinctively brought fresh ideas to the table straight away. We’d already decided that we wanted some string parts on this track, but Rakhi contributed so many great ideas that we decided to feature her violin as the lead melodic instrument. This piece is inspired by a trip to the redwood forests near Seattle when we were on tour there in 2024.
“Float (Loi krathong, 2003)”
The initial idea for this piece came out of an experimental jam that Chris and I had in the studio. I had brought in a small metal drum from home that you play with mallets. We ran it through Chris’s modular synth setup to create a loop, which formed the backdrop for layers of bass and piano. The opening bass melody was improvised in the studio. The title is inspired by the time I lived in Thailand many years ago. I’d rewatched an old video of me at the Loi Krathong festival in Bangkok, a floating water lantern festival, and it was in my mind as I wrote the middle section. During Loi Krathong, people float handmade vessels, traditionally made of banana leaves, incense sticks, and a candle. The floating away symbolises letting go of all one’s hatred and anger, and you can also make a wish for the future.
“State of Flux”
The second of our collaborations with Manchester Collective, this was the first track on the new record where we knew we wanted to work with other musicians. Chris’s very early sketches for the track already included the rich string pads you can hear on the final recording, but as the track developed, we quickly realised we wanted to explore more of what is possible with a string ensemble. Electronica has always been a big source of inspiration for our music, and the arpeggiator-style patterns in this track are a good example of that influence. They’re tough to play on the piano, even tougher in a string ensemble, but the effect is powerful. The track often feels electronic, but the techniques and sounds are all acoustic.
“Silence Speaks”
This was the reverse concept to Naga Ghost. Instead of starting acoustic and then gradually bringing in the electronic instruments, we decided to do it the other way round. Initially, this was a solo piano piece written at home by Chris, sat with his son at the piano, but we decided to start the opening section on the modular synthesiser and Moog Grandmother. We wanted to explore how it felt for us to start from a place where the sound was completely electronic and allow the acoustic sounds to grow from within. When the drums kick in to a full beat, the piano takes over with the double bass, and the piece ends with the acoustic piano trio instrumentation.
