GoGo Penguin

On 17 November 2026 at KOKO in London, GoGo Penguin bring a live set shaped by their new album, Necessary Fictions. The Manchester trio — pianist Chris Illingworth, bassist Nick Blacka and drummer Jon Scott — push their acoustic framework into fresh territory, folding modular synths, Moog Grandmother tones and electric bass into their palette. Their language moves between jazz, minimalism and club culture, where tight piano motifs, melodic low end and fractured rhythms slide from hush to propulsion without losing the thread.

On stage, drums often come to the front, driving patterns that the piano stretches and repeats while the bass anchors and sings. The electronic layers don’t mask the instruments; they shadow them, opening routes from felted chords to granular pulses, from brushed cymbals to breakbeat shapes. The set looks inward as much as outward, focused on what feels essential to the band now, with interplay that shifts naturally between detail and drive.