PORTICO QUARTET AT Anaverna

Music Network presents PORTICO QUARTET AT Anaverna, RAVENSDALE, DUNDALK ON Thursday 18th February

“Floating somewhere between jazz and modern classical music, this young group make a strikingly original sound.” The Times

genuinely innovative…there isn’t a band that sounds remotely like them…” **** stars” Observer Music Monthly

A joy to listen to, full of depth and detailWord Magazine

Music Network presents the weird but wonderful sound of Mercury-prize nominated UK Portico Quartet, showcasing tunes from their recent album Isla which has been described by MOJO as a brew of, “… Steve Reich mathematics, Radiohead dread, African desert grooves and ECM northern melancholy …a chiming cavernous sound-world that is both exotic and hypnotic”. The group will perform at Anaverna, Ravensdale, Dundalk, Co. Louth on Thursday 18th February at 8:00 PM. Tickets priced €18  (Students €5) are available at 042 9380836.

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. What’s going on?

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 (Stone Roses, Radiohead, Muse etc).

If you’re not already a fan: this band is quite unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. If you are, you’ll know to book early!

Portico Quartet

Nick Mulvey, hang

Duncan Bellamy, drums

Jack Wyllie, soprano and tenor saxophone

Milo Fitzpatrick, double bass

Vere Lenox-Conyngham, Anaverna, Ravensdale (042) 93 71490 or  vere@iol.ie

St Patrick’s Eve Concert

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Uri Caine plays John Zorn

Uri Caine to perform in St.Peter’s Church of Ireland, Drogheda Friday 5 March 2010.

“Uri Caine is a king among princes, a consummate musician who sounds great whether playing Bach, accompanying Don Byron on Puccini’s Nessun Dorma, wrangling an ambitious avant-jazz ensemble around the music of Mahler . . . . . He is prolific, hugely proficient, and ambitious.”John Walters, Guardian

Louth Contemporary Music Society’s first concert for 2010 features a performance by the great American pianist Uri Caine. The performance takes place in St.Peter’s Church of Ireland Drogheda on 5 March 2010 at 8pm.
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Pianist and composer Uri Caine gleefully and artfully ignores the boundaries between musical genres, mixing up Mahler and Bach with original music, swinging bebop and hard-hitting drum-and-bass. He launches LCMS 2010 concerts by performing John Zorn’s Book of Angel’s Volume 6: Moloch.

Moloch is a remarkable set of piano solos. Some of these pieces are dark, others very beautiful. All are played superbly and imaginatively. Uri Caine is a Philadelphia-raised virtuoso, unconfined by genres. Likewise-unfettered is the music’s composer, John Zorn, from whose Book of Angels {Masada Book Two} these pieces come.

In addition to performing solo and with his own ensemble, Caine has worked with groups, including those led by by Don Byron, Sam Rivers, Clark Terry, Arto Lindsay,John Zorn and Barry Altschul. He has also performed with the Woody Herman Band, the Enja Band, and Global Theory. Caine has appeared at many jazz festivals including the What is Jazz? Festival, the Texaco Jazz Festival (New York), the Montreal Jazz Festival, Jazz Across the Borders (Berlin), and the Newport Jazz Festival. Appearances at classical music festivals include the Salzburg Festival, the Holland Festival, and the Israel Festival. Caine is the recipient of grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Uri Caine is presented by Louth Contemporary Music Society (LCMS) in association with Louth County Arts Office. Uri Caine is funded by The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and financially supported by the the Louth Arts Office.

Tickets €15 are available from
www.centralticketbureau.com
Tel: 0818 205 205 (ROI)
0870 850 2896 (UK)

Uri Caine was born in Philadelphia and began studying piano with Bernard Peiffer. He played in bands led by Philly Joe Jones, Hank Mobley, Johnny Coles, Mickey Roker, Odean Pope, Jymmie Merritt, Bootsie Barnes and Grover Washington. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and studied music composition with George Rochberg and George Crumb.

Since moving to New York City Caine has recorded 20 cds as a leader. His most recent cd is Plastic Temptation (Winter and Winter 2009), featuring Bedrock. He has made cd’s featurning his jazz trio, his Bedrock Trio and his ensemble performing arrangements of Mahler, Wagner, Beethoven, Bach and Schumann.
Recently Caine has received commissions from the Vienna Volksoper, The Seattle Chamber Players, Relache, The Beaux Arts Trio, the Basel Chamber Orchestra, Concerto Koln and the American Composers Orchestra. Caine was the Director of the Venice Biennale for Music in September 2003. He has performed his version of the Diabelli Variations with orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the CBC Orchestra in Candada and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. From 2006-2009 he was composer in residence for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and premiered his Concerto for Two Pianos and Chamber Orchestra with Jeffrey Kahane in May 2006. In 2009 he was nominated for a Grammy Award for The Othello Syndrome.
During the past several years, Caine has worked in groups led by Don Byron, Dave Douglas, John Zorn, Terry Gibbs and Buddy DeFranco, Clark Terry, Rashid Ali, Arto Lindsay, Sam Rivers and Barry Altschul, the Woody Herman Band, Annie Ross, the Enja Band, Global Theory and the Master Musicians of Jajouka. He has received grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts , the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pew Foundation. He has performed at many jazz festivals including The North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival. Monterey Jazz Festival, JVC Festival, San Sebastian Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, as well as classical festivals including The Salzburg Festival, Munich Opera, Holland Festival, Israel Festival, IRCAM, and Great Performers at Lincoln Center.

Ceol Chairlinn

Ceol Chairlinn has now become an important part of the traditional music calendar of the north east. Hosted in the beautiful surroundings of Carlingford, Ceol Chairlinn affords individuals the opportunity to both renew old acquaintances and build new friendships.

Download the programme brochure here