Like nothing you've ever heard before!

Music Network at Solstice hosts the Mercury-prize nominated Portico Quartet on Wednesday 17th February. Described by The Times as "floating somewhere between jazz and modern classical music, this young group make a strikingly original sound", Portico Quartet are four young musicians from East London who sound like nothing you've ever heard before. A group that's both ground-breaking and wildly popular, they hit the headlines in 2008 when their debut album 'Knee Deep In The North Sea' was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. Critics began to think the unthinkable: could a young group fresh from busking across Europe take on the pop might of Radiohead and The Last Shadow Puppets - and win? To make matters worse, the group already had the sort of word-of-mouth cult following normally associated with the likes of Pete Doherty. The answer is simple: music that is breathtakingly original yet chock-a-block with hummable tunes and killer hooks. There's more - great grooves, atmospheric soundscapes and the silvery tones of something once described as " two woks glued together" - the hang, both a rhythm and melody instrument that gives Portico Quartet their trademark hypnotic tone. Still in their early '20s, Jack Wyllie (saxophones and electronics), Milo Fitzpatrick (double bass), Nick Mulvey (Hang and percussion) and Duncan Bellamy (drums) live together and describe their ethos as like an indy band that plays post-jazz rather than as a traditional jazz outfit. It's the unique mix of loops, ethereal sax, otherworldly hang, clattering drums and earthy double-bass that gives their music it's inimitable, beautiful sound. And it was the chance purchase of the hang by Duncan Bellamy, at a music festival, that inspired the young friends to start a band, and while their largely intuitive music references jazz and African music, it's the hang inspired trance-like repetitive patterns that propel the band into stranger pastures: invoking Philip Glass and Steve Reich as well as Radiohead or the unique Scandi-jazz sound of EST. Portico Quartet's unique brand of atmospheric hook-heavy post-jazz was honed busking across Europe and playing in unusual spaces; churches, galleries and chill-out zones and in just a few years Portico Quartet's hypnotic music has taken them from busking on London's South Bank, to a Mercury Prize nomination, to recording at Abbey Road Studio 2 with producer and famed nurturer of young bands John Leckie. If you're not already a fan: this band is quite unlike anything you've ever heard before! Tickets priced €15 / €12 are available at (046) 909 2300 for the 8pm performance on 17th February.