Beginnings by Tom Penaguin

Beginnings by Tom Penaguin from 2025.

I discovered this great artist by reading about his work online and his official biography, which I'll quote here in full: “French based multi-instrumentalist and composer Tom Penaguin presents his spectacular self-titled debut album. The album showcases some of the most impressive Canterbury Scene progressive rock sounds since the genre’s inception in the 1970s. Tom (guitarist of Djiin and former keyboardist of Orgöne), began playing guitar at the age of 6 and later learnt how to play drums, piano and organ to a professional standard by the age of 15. Influenced by the likes of Frank Zappa and the Canterbury Scene, Tom set out to build an analog music studio in his house in 2020, where he recorded the entire album using a plethora of vintage studio hardware and equipment. The result is a masterful ode to bands like Egg and National Health. The songs are complex in structure, with Stravinsky-inspired patterns, glorious melodies, whilst allowing room for lengthy improvisations akin to the fusion scene of the early 70s.”

I also had the opportunity to confirm this by listening to his beautiful, self-titled debut album, released in 2024, which I wrote a long and enthusiastic review of.

My first listen to this new work was marred by two mistakes.

The first was that I started listening to the CD in the car, on a Sunday outing, forgetting that my favorite genre doesn't lend itself to distracted listening, but I was so eager to do so that I gave in. From this first listen, I confirmed that this is not an easy-listening album.

As with the previous album, it's important to refer to what Tom himself tells us about this work.

"This is not a "brand new" album; all the songs featured here were written and recorded between 2012 and 2020. The old ones were poorly recorded/mixed because I was still a teenager trying to learn how things work. There is no real planned continuity in here and everything was left as is, with just a bit of mastering to even things out.
So, what's the point then?
Each of those tracks were, at their time, the best thing I could come up with; the opening tracks of albums that never were, like little seeds waiting to be watered into a full-fledged LP. These pieces were (and still are) important to me, but they are too far away for me to do something new with it, so it's a kind of "now or never" situation. The sound quality makes it sound way older than it is, so please take it as an involuntary bootleg-ish archival album of moods and experiments I went through while growing up, hence the name: Beginnings." Tom Penaguin

And that said, here's my second mistake: I didn't read what Tom describes here before listening.

It's essentially a prequel, songs written before the release of his debut album, and should be understood as an archive of his experiments to "learn" from experience how to write and play. Songs Tom himself judges as "seeds," therefore embryonic, perhaps immature, and destined for further development.

I don't know if this will ultimately be a proper review; we'll see what happens. Tom provides us with a wealth of information about the songs, which might be enough. First, I want to faithfully report what Tom tells us track by track (taken from the CD's liner notes), reproduced below.

- Long Piece No. 1. Description by Tom

"Long Piece No 1, Recorded in November 2013

This was my first foray into 10+ minutes long songs. I used to record straight into the mic input of my laptop with anything that could be used as a microphone. At first, I used the microphone attached to an outdated headset, but as soon as I figured out that my laptop's mic input was indeed stereo, I dismantled a couple of old cell phones to recover their microphones and then managed to solder them to an earplug cable. Both microphones were then loosely placed on the ground around the drum-kit, it sounded bad but in stereo! Also featured on this track at 06:27 is a very rhythmic passage where I managed to record myself playing (i.e., hitting in rhythm) an a few trophies that my dad won in karting competitions when he was younger."

A beautiful Canterbury-style piece, with excellent structure and great creativity in the execution.

- Ominous Bathtub in April. Description by Tom

"Ominous Bathtub in April, Recorded in May 2013

I never managed to find a proper ending for this song because I think the mood shifts a bit too much between the beginning and the end. If you listen carefully, you hear that most of the instruments (but mainly drums and guitars) have their tone shifts significantly from one part to the next. The reason for this is quite simple: I used to record parts as I was writing them, and I was writing everything at the same time. A normal day would be like: "let's record this guitar pattern", "this gives me an idea for the bass line"; "off to the garage to record a bit of drums", "this gives me an idea for the next drum pattern, I'll record it first and see what I can do next", "let's play the planet part down" etc, and l only had one mic at the time to record the drums and other instruments (easy for me to remember that, as the drum track is in mano)."

We find distorted guitar and beautiful organ, drums in a sort of march, beautiful acoustic guitar sections and atmospheric keyboards, and moments of symphonic rock. A beautiful song with many variations and exquisite craftsmanship.

- Two and a Half. Description by Tom

"Two and a Half, Recorded in December 2012

I had not planned to have two drums tracks on this song, but the snare drum decided otherwise. Halfway through the recording of the drum track the batter head gave way, so as a last-ditch effort, I re-organized the bits of recording I had, and I separated them on two different tracks to mitigate the obvious auditive repetition feeling of copying and pasting a small fragment over a several minutes song. What's funny, is that since then, attempted several times to record a brand-new drum track, but it never seemed to fit well."

A captivating rock rhythm over which great guitar work moves with variations in speed and style, the song has brighter moments with greater emphasis.

The Tap Dancing Millipede Grew Tired. Description by Tom

"The Tap Dancing Millipede Grew Tired, Recorded in January 2013

That was my most guitar heavy track at the time, and the beginning of my fascination for Leslie cabs on guitar. But I didn't have one at the time, so it's only a fast and subtle chorus pedal."

Great guitar and keyboard work, with a frenetic and complex section where they chase each other in a whirlwind duo solo, then returning to a more regular rhythm, but always with a remarkable guitar jam taking center stage. At the end, after a pause, the rhythm becomes more refined and the sound less angular, for a subsequent section of scattered keyboard and guitar sounds in an ethereal, suspended melody.

Several Clocks. Tom's Description

“Several Clocks, Recorded in December 2015

Not much to say here, except it might be your best shot at hearing at the same time all the clocks at my parent's house, and also a few plastic recorders from highschool”

The multiple clocks form the initial rhythmic basis for guitar arpeggios that progressively grow in intensity in a style recognizable from '70s symphonic rock, both in the guitar and melodic styles. Even then, with an almost pastoral atmosphere, a guitar-only interlude enters, followed by a beautiful choral section of great melody and creativity, with a more decisive rhythm and a '70s vibe, upon which a beautiful guitar solo develops, long and intense, with a beautiful bass drum base as the perfect backdrop.

Hamburg's Heaviest Pebble. Tom's Description

“Hamburg's Heaviest Pebble, Recorded in July 2020
That's the most recent song and yet it doesn't sound modern, but that's because it was the first time I recorded a song fully on analog gear. I just bought a Fostex R8 8 track reel to reel tape recorder with its matching mixing desk, and this song was my way of testing the whole system. I began by recording the whole drum track, writing the whole song as I was playing it (I had a rough idea but no real melody or chord progression in mind), and then I tried to fit every other instrument to build a cohesive song. That's why there's a lot of improvisation and a few redundant passages: nothing was planned from the beginning. Recording that many instruments on 8 tracks was hard for me; I had to mix the six microphones of the drum lit into a two track drum bus before I could record anything else. I had no possibility to property mix the drums with the rest of the overdubs once the song was done. I sold the tape recorder not long after, and then bought a 16 tracks one.”

A sort of very well-crafted journey through different Prog styles, with a nice rhythm section and the guitar always at the center. Nice piece.

- Long Piece No. 1 Five Years Later. Tom's Description

“Long Piece No1, Five Years Later, Recorded in August 2018

The was the first time in my life that I took an “old" song and re-recorded it. It’s also the only sung in here that sounds decent, because it’s the only one with plenty of mics everywhere and no track number limitations from a tape recorder. I recorded all of the organs and electric pianos that I had at the time, and I learned a lot about how to combine sounds. I can’t decide witch version I like the most; this one sounds good, but the old one sounds true and nostalgic. I think they are different enough to have their spot on this album.”
More intense than the original version and with a more nuanced performance on the guitar and keyboards, which in this sense are improved, with atmospheres that are decidedly reminiscent of '70s prog. The keyboards in particular are beautiful.

Tom's descriptions are so beautiful that they almost make any review pointless. There's so much content and shared opinions about the tracks, so after several listens, in a more comfortable environment than a computer, paying the right amount of attention and being mindful of Tom's thoughts and insights into the album and its origins, I limited myself to offering my overall impressions.

I greatly appreciate Tom's ability and desire to communicate his work in a detailed, open, sincere, and passionate manner. This is a sign of great passion and a non-strategic, yet very spontaneous, vision, a characteristic I consider typical of great artists. This makes the album not only beautiful to listen to but very interesting to read.

An album with ambitious tracks, despite not having originally been conceived as an album, but rather a collection of self-contained songs, undoubtedly the result of extensive studio work. Despite the limited resources described by Tom himself, it conveys a sense of completeness and linearity while maintaining its experimental character and a sometimes extreme complexity within the individual tracks.

The great love for prog shines through, a good album-archive of works that trace a path that led to the beautiful debut album and which I hope will have a follow-up, with other means and the renewed motivation that critics are giving to this young artist of undoubted value.

Note: All links to the musicians' works are in the TAGS under the article title or on the "Artists" page.

Tracklist

1. Long Piece No1 (12:20)
2. Ominous Bathbub in April (7:54)
3. Two and a Half (3:31)
4. The Tap Dancing Millipede Grew Tired (4:31)
5. Several Clocks (7:29)
6. Hamburg's Heaviest Pebble (15:48)
7. Long Piece No1 Five Years Later (16:33)

Duration 68:06

LineUp

Composed, performed, recorded, mixed and produced by Tom Penaguin