(CD) Surprise Chef - Frogs In A Pond

Surprise Chef’s Frogs In A Pond (released October 23, 2026, via Big Crown / Concord Jazz) presents the album as a moody, highly evocative masterpiece of instrumental storytelling that captures the Australian quintet at their tightest and most ambitious.

Following up on their globally acclaimed 2022 breakout Education & Recreation, this fourth studio album finds the Melbourne-based outfit delivering a sharper, more dramatic evolution of their signature sound.

The title Frogs In A Pond is a direct nod to the band’s creative workspace and mental headspace. Writing and recording inside their cramped, gear-packed DIY home studio in Coburg (a northern suburb of Melbourne), the five musicians lived and breathed these tracks together like "frogs swimming in a tiny pond."

 

Rather than standard funk jams, the album leans heavily into the mysterious world of 1970s European library music and Italian giallo film scores. It is entirely self-produced and tracked live to tape using vintage analog equipment, giving the record a warm, gritty, and deeply nostalgic texture.