Search - Melonius Quartet :: Au Sud de la Mandoline

There's little doubt that the phrase "adventurous spirits" applies to this group, a mandolin quartet that plays traditional French folk songs, suites by Poulenc and Milhaud, and Brazilian jazz, then offers as their tour de force a cover of Frank Zappa's "King Kong." Led by the talented Patrick Vaillant, Melonious Quartet presents a program of audacious music, played with an exactness and energy that rivals more infamous classical groups like Kronos. Using various sizes of the mandolin, plus oud on a few tracks, the group's members display a virtuosity that is remarkable. Their ability to create such a broad and colorful palette of sounds on one class of instrument also speaks highly not only of their skill, but of their creative impulse, as they stroke, pluck, and torture their instruments and arrange unique rhythmic and melodic structures around these tunes. --Louis Gibson