Portico Quartet have announced the imminent arrival of a new album ‘Terrain’, set for release next month.

The record, due out May 28 through Gondwana, will comprise three movements. The music was composed and recorded last year, and draws on American minimalism and ambient music genres.

The second movement, ‘Terrain: II’ is out now. Listen to an edit of the track below:

In a statement, the band compared the stylings found in ‘Terrain’ to that of their previous compositions ‘Line’, ‘Shed Song’, ‘Rubidium’ and ‘Immediately Visible’. They also said the course of the pandemic caused them to “take stock, re-think, and plot a new musical path”.

“The core of it is having a repeated pattern, around which other parts move in and out, and start to form a narrative,” said Jack Wyllie, the group’s keyboardist and saxophonist.

“We used to do longer improvisations not dissimilar to this around the time of our second record ‘Isla’. On ‘Terrain’ we’ve really dug into it and explored that form.”

Wyllie goes on to note key influences for the album, which will mark their seventh full-length studio release overall.

“I suppose there are obvious influences such as American minimalism, but I was particularly inspired by the work of Japanese composer Midori Takada,” he said.

“Her approach, particularly on ‘Through the Looking Glass’, where she moves through different worlds incorporating elements of minimalism with non-Western instruments and melodies, were at the front of my mind when writing this music.”

‘Terrain’ will follow on from Portico Quartet’s 2019 full-length release, ‘Memory Streams’. Since then, they have also released the EPs ‘We Welcome Tomorrow’ and ‘Trajectory’.