| Isla | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Portico Quartet |
| Cover: | Portico_Quartet_Isla_album_cover.jpg |
| Released: | 19 October 2009 |
| Recorded: | May 2009 |
| Studio: | Abbey Road Studios |
| Genre: | Jazz |
| Length: | 47:47 |
| Label: | Real World |
| Producer: | John Leckie |
| Prev Title: | Knee-Deep in the North Sea |
| Prev Year: | 2007 |
| Next Title: | Portico Quartet |
| Next Year: | 2012 |
Isla is the second studio album by Portico Quartet, recorded in May 2009 and released on Real World on 19 October 2009. The quartet is composed of saxophonist Jack Wyllie, rhythm section Milo Fitzpatrick and Duncan Bellamy, and percussionist Nick Mulvey.
Isla is Portico Quartet's second studio album and the follow-up to Knee-Deep in the North Sea, their Mercury Prize-nominated debut album.
The album saw a continuation and refinement of the live acoustic sound developed in Knee-Deep in the North Sea. While those songs were written busking, the songs for Isla were written over a period of four winter months in the band's garden shed.[1] Reflecting this the album has a darker, more introspective tone than its predecessor.[2]
Songs for the album were recorded in May 2009 at Abbey Road Studio 2. The album was produced by John Leckie. Electronic overdubs and string arrangements were added at Fish Factory Studios.
Artwork and design for the album was done by the drummer Duncan Bellamy, who has a degree in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins. The cover is a painting by Bellamy.
Isla received widespread international acclaim upon its release.
The Observer highlighted their development in sound and that the album had "exceeded the unreasonable expectations prompted by their impressive debut ... it is better focused and better executed ... genuinely innovative".[3]
Other reviewers noted the albums darker tone compared to its predecessor. Jazzwise commenting that it was a "highly atmospheric album" with a "haunting sonic texture" and "brooding ambience" that "is much more focused in intent".[4] The BBC described a "deepier, scarier world"[5] and Music OMH called it "hypnotic, sultry and mesmorising".[6]
The album was also acclaimed for its fusing of genres. The Washington Post praised this "quietly impassioned set of originals that fuse elements of pop, jazz, classical and electronics music ... wholly original, 21st century experimentalism that stirs both body and soul".[7] Pop Matters wrote that "It's one thing to crisscross musical genres. It's another to make it sound like second nature"[8] and Mojo highlighted the albums "glorious eclecticism ... Isla feeds on Steve Reich mathematics, Radiohead dread, African desert grooves and ECM northern melancholy".[9]
All songs composed, arranged and performed by Portico Quartet; string arrangements by Milo Fitzpatrick.
A separate 2009 EP collected together bonus tracks and outtakes from the Isla sessions.