Portico Quartet formed six years ago, the original line-up from two sets of school friends who shared a house in East London. From the start, what distinguished them from dozens of other Hackney hopefuls was their sound - a fresh, uncliched resynthesis and reinvention of music that's both pleasingly familiar and thrillingly new, like World Music from the future.

From a grassroots start in 2005, busking on the South Bank of London's Thames, Portico Quartet's reputation spread swiftly. They began to get paid bookings plus the odd festival, and they made a five-track CD to sell at gigs. In 2007 they signed a record deal to make a full length CD, Knee Deep In The North Sea (Babel/Vortex). This was a turning point: the album attracted attention from DJs, bloggers and critics of every stripe, and was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize.

Their second album, Isla, was released in 2009. A thoughtful and richly tuneful collection of nine pieces, the album was recorded by legendary producer John Leckie at Abbey Road Studio 2. Leckie brought an extra clarity to Portico Quartet's arrangements, while the musicians made good use of the studio to sculpt and enhance their sound with loop pedals, real-time electronics and overdubs. Each track on Isla has a distinct mood and atmosphere; this is an album whose contents reveal fresh nuances and facets on each listen.

The members of Portico Quartet have learnt about their music from each other. And they've grown up independently as a band, keeping a discreet distance from the cloistered fund-chasing of contemporary classical music, the cash-strapped musical chairs of the jazz scene and the competitive rat-race of indie.

Like their fans and followers, they have grown up immersed in the global jukebox of sounds available to anyone with curiosity and an internet connection. What they play can't be classified as World, jazz, pop, rock, roots, electronica or contemporary classical music, yet they draw strength and inspiration from all those genres. As a band of friends, they have wrought a collective sound that evokes a multitude of musical memories while remaining genuinely new, sounding a warm new note that resonates long after the final track has ended (copy courtesy of Real World Records).