Unlike anyone in jazz, world or contemporary, Portico Quartet's music is both pleasingly familiar and thrillingly new - like World Music from the future.

Like their fans, 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 or contemporary classical music, yet they draw strenght and inspiration from all those genres. Thanks to the use of the hang, a tuned percussion instrument, they have a sound that is instantly attractive, yet uncompromising individual.

From a grassroots start in 2005, busking on London's South Bank, their reputation spread swiftly. Their 2007 debut, Knee Deep In The North Sea (Babel/Vortex), attracted attention from DJ's, bloggers abd critics, and was dominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize.

Their new album, Isla, is a thoughtful and richly tuneful collection of nine pieces recorded by producer John Leckie (Stone Roses, Dove, XTC, Radiohead) at Abbey Road