Portico (formerly Portico Quartet) are a band from London. 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. The name portico comes from when one of their gigs was rained off in Italy, and they ended up playing under a portico. Their third, eponymously titled album was released on 30 January 2012. Their first two albums’ musical style was a mixture of jazz and folk. Subsequent albums 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. The resulting sound has similarities with other alternative artists such as James Blake, etc.
