Portico Quartet

Born in London in 2005 from the meeting of musicians who had passed through Southampton and Cambridge, Portico Quartet develops an instrumental music located between contemporary jazz, ambient and electronic, initially marked by the sound of the hang, which has become one of the signatures of its early recordings. The group formed on the London scene, performing notably in public space on the South Bank, before releasing Knee-Deep in the North Sea in 2007, then Isla in 2009. With Portico Quartet in 2012, the writing evolves toward more treated textures, where saxophone, bass, drums and repetitive motifs are inscribed in a more minimal and atmospheric aesthetic. After Nick Mulvey's departure in 2011, then a phase under the name Portico around the Living Fields album in 2015, the project returns to the Portico Quartet designation and continues its exploration of a crossing between jazz pulsation, repetitive composition and electronic production. Art in the Age of Automation appeared in 2017, followed by Memory Streams in 2019, Terrain in 2021 and Monument in 2021. Through these lineup changes, Portico Quartet has realigned itself around Jack Wyllie and Duncan Bellamy, while maintaining an approach where improvisation, circular melody and work on sonic material remain closely linked.