Portico Quartet

Portico Quartet
Portico Quartet's logo as of 2017
Background information
Also known as	Portico (2015-2016)
Origin	London, UK
Genres	Modern ensemble jazz, folk, ambient (before 2015 and after 2016) Alternative, electronic, ambient, synthpop (2015-2016)
Years active	2005 to present
Labels	Babel Label (2005-2014) Real World (2009-2014) Ninja Tune (2014-2016) Gondwana Records (from 2017)
Website	porticoquartet.com
Members	Duncan Bellamy Milo Fitzpatrick Jack Wylie
Past members	Nick Mulvey (original member) Keir Vine

Portico Quartet (briefly Portico in the years 2015 and 2016) are a band from London. The group is composed of Jack Wylie (soprano and tenor saxophone), Duncan Bellamy (Hang and drums), and Milo Fitzpatrick (double bass). Keir Vine (keyboards) had replaced Nick Mulvey (Hang and percussion), who left in early 2011 to pursue his career as a singer-songwriter. Vine then left the group on 1 August 2014.

The 'Portico' moniker comes from when one of their gigs was rained off in Italy, and they ended up playing under a portico.

The group is know of their use of the Hang in their modern jazz pieces. Their debut album Knee-deep in the North Sea, was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Prize.

The band formed whilst their original members were studying ethnomusicology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in around 2005.

After nearly two years of playing mainly small gigs and busking regularly outside the National Theatre in London, they signed to Babel Label in 2007. Their first album, Knee-Deep in the North Sea, was released on 5 November 2007.

In September 2014, after Vine left the group, the band changed their name to Portico, dropping the word 'Quartet' from their name, and completely changed their musical style. It was also announced that the band were signing to Ninja Tune.

On 28 December 2016, the band officially indicated that they were to go back to being Portico Quartet (they did drop some subtle hints earlier in the year) and began recording a new album. As of April 2017, the identity of the fourth member of the band has yet to be confirmed. The band also changed record company to Gondwana Records.

Their first two albums' musical style was a mixture of jazz and folk. The Hang is used to full effect in their music and is coupled with Wylie's saxophone tune. This 'modern ensemble jazz' has been encompassed by other contemporaries such as GoGo Penguin, etc.

For their subsequent albums, they went in a completely different direction, turning to electronic, synthpop and ambient genres. The Hang was abandoned at this point and the music developed into a more experimental and modern-sounding approach.