NEW LP
New sealed copy. Independent record store exclusive limited edition on green blend colorued vinyl.
Frogs In A Pond is the fifth studio album by Australian instrumental group Surprise Chef, released in 2026 through Concord Jazz. Produced by longtime collaborator Henry Jenkins, the album was recorded over a continuous nine day session at the band's College of Knowledge studio outside Melbourne, with most of the performances captured live and with minimal overdubbing. It is Surprise Chef's first album for Concord Jazz.
The record develops the group's instrumental jazz funk and cinematic soul sound through the influence of Italian giallo films and European soundtrack composers of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly Piero Umiliani and Piero Piccioni. The band worked within a deliberately limited instrumental palette that included drums, electric bass, guitar, piano, clavinet, Arp Odyssey, vibraphone, and tuned wood blocks. Flutist Leon Michels also appears on several tracks. Pieces such as "Frog Technique," "Get Well Soon," "Leg Day," and "Where the Crows Fly Backwards" are connected through recurring rhythmic and melodic motifs.
Rather than treating the 13 tracks as isolated compositions, Surprise Chef structured Frogs In A Pond as a continuous suite intended to resemble the soundtrack to an imagined film. The album's title and recurring characters developed from the band's experience of working closely together during the recording period, with the finished record focusing on ideas of coexistence and shared experience.
TRACKLIST:
A1 Inside Voice
A2 Outside Voice
A3 Frog Technique
A4 Knuckle Sandwich
A5 I Love What You've Done With The Place
A6 Get Well Soon
A7 Duet
B1 The Reno
B2 Tadpoles
B3 Leg Day
B4 Where The Crows Fly Backwards
B5 Omnipresence
B6 Frogs In A Pond
