Terrain

Description

Portico Quartet announces Terrain, a suite in three parts inspired by American minimalism and ambient music, exploring new musical perspectives.
When Duncan Bellamy and Jack Wyllie, the driving force behind Portico Quartet, gathered in their East London studio in May 2020 and began working on the music that would become their new album, most of the world was in the midst of the first lockdown. In creating Terrain, they were drawn to longer pieces, unfolding slowly, and which are perhaps the most artistically free and also the most beautiful they have ever created.
The terrains I, II, and III are all subtly different, but a short rhythmic motif that repeats is the starting point for the three movements. There is a sense of a shared journey in all these pieces. They move through different worlds, with a feeling of horizontal movement that gives the music a real momentum. It is this sense of dialogue, both between the composers, and between tranquility and a subtly unsettling melancholy, that makes Terrain such a powerful statement. One that speaks to both our inner and outer worlds, our own personal landscape, our Terrain.