Track Listing

1. Paper Scissors Stone
2. The Visitor
3. Dawn Patrol
4. Line
5. Life Mask (Interlude)
6. Clipper
7. Life Mask
8. Isla
9. Shed Song (Improv No 1)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #737 in Music
• Released on: 2009-10-19
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
From a grassroots start in 2005, busking on London’s South Bank, Portico Quartet's reputation spread swiftly. Their 2007 debut, Knee Deep In The North Sea, attracted attention from DJs, bloggers and critics, and was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize. The new album, Isla, is a thoughtful and richly tuneful collection of nine pieces recorded by producer John Leckie (Stone Roses, Doves, XTC, Radiohead) at the Abbey Road studios.

Portico Quartet sound like nobody else in jazz, world or contemporary music. Each of the nine tracks on Isla has a distinct mood and atmosphere, thanks to the use of the hang, a tuned percussion instrument, they have a sound that is instantly attractive, yet uncompromisingly individual.

"Danceable chamber jazz soundscapes"--Q Magazine

Customer Reviews

Wonderful gentle jazz with intriguing undertones
This new album by Portico follows on from their glorious debut "Knee Deep in the North Sea", with a similar tone but a new level of maturity.

The focus of the group is the Hang, a sort of inverted steel-drum which plays like a marimba - and provides a beautiful, hypnotic rhythm over which the sax and bass weave delicious harmonies. The drummer switches effortlessly between soft swishing brushes, to sudden bursts of hard-rock thunder. The bass-player sends tingles down the spine with some stunning (and complex) riffs - and the sax player builds exotic soundscapes for the band to play over.

This is music to relax to, music to dance to, music to listen to in smoky bars, music to enjoy - warming, happy, clever, but with an interesting harder edge underneath - whether the occasional screeches from the sax, or rumbling from the bass.

If you like (the late lamented) EST, or Keith Jarrett's Scandinavian group, or even Neil Ardley's synthesiser jazz - you will most likely enjoy this.

Get This Album!!
PQ are a very distinctive and original sounding group. Whilst I would say this isn't really a 'jazz' album, it would appeal to many jazz and contemporary music fans. There music has more in common with the minimalist/ contemporary genre, kinda like Steve Reich meets Massive Attack, who occasionally bump into Wayne Shorter, perhaps!

Anyway, I love their sound, and would rate this as one of my albums of the year. Track 2 has a section which is so simple, yet beatifully arranged and performed, it's worth buying this album for that alone.

Atmospheric Modern Jazz
After being nominated for the Mercury Music Prize last year Portico Quartet have had some good exposure for their atmospheric brand of modern jazz. `Isla' then is their second album filled with more beautifully atmospheric tracks, each perfectly described by its title. Opener `Paper Scissors Stone' has an element of joy mixed with concentration very much like a child's game. `The Visitor' has an apprehensive quality to it provided by the persistent percussion and horn section. `Dawn Patrol' seems to ring like a muted alarm call in the quiet early hours of a day, before growing slowly in intensity. `Clipper' is a bouncing track with steel drums and echoing soulful saxophone. The closing track then provides a slight step away from the precise musicality of the rest of the album with a more improvised and less produced feel. The album as a whole is beautifully relaxing and atmospheric modern jazz.