Necessary Fictions


Necessary Fictions is the seventh studio album by English jazz fusion band GoGo Penguin. It was released on 20 June 2025 via XXIM in LP, CD and digital formats. Necessary Fictions is preceded by the band's 2023 project, Everything Is Going to Be OK. The first single, "Fallowfield Loops", was released on 17 April 2025, alongside a music video directed by band members Chris Illingworth and Nick Blacka.

Reception

Clash rated the album seven out of ten and referred to it as the band's "most adventurous record to date," noting they "retain their understated, cinematic sound that quickly builds into expansive movements of arpeggiating piano riffs, razor-sharp drumming and fluid basslines."
The album received a three and a half star rating from AllMusic, whose reviewer Paul Simpson stated, "On Necessary Fictions, they frequently use modular synthesizers, though they often create tones that sound closer to acoustic than synthetic."
Mojos Charles Waring described the album as "a love letter to their native south Manchester and its iconic brutalist architecture," and noted it as "genre-defying", giving it a rating of four stars.
All About Jazz gave it a four-star rating and opined, "Necessary Fictions is the sunny-day party that follows once everyone feels properly ready to celebrate. The band sounds exuberant when stomping the place down or warmly comfortable spinning a pretty melody with charming simplicity."

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.

GoGo Penguin

Additional contributors

  • Daudi Matsiko – vocals, guitar
  • Rakhi Singh – solo violin, vocals, violins
  • Rosemary Attree – violins
  • Anna Tulchinskaya – violins
  • Dylan Edge – violins
  • Carol Ella – viola
  • Alistair Vennart – violas
  • Peggy Nolan – cellos
  • Simon Turner – cellos
  • Joseph Reiser – production, recording, mixing (recorded music)|mixing]
  • Brandon Williams – production, recording, mixing
  • Tom Dring – engineering assistance
  • Norman Nitzsche – mastering, vinyl cut