London-based trio Quest Ensemble present a distinctive twist on the traditional piano trio format. A collaboration between three powerful performers/composers, ‘The Other Side’ sees musical styles woven together into a lyrical tapestry of sound, blending improvisation with co-created original compositions. A truly unique ensemble in compositional process and performance style.

On 5th June, Quest Ensemble will release their sophomore album ‘The Other Side’. With nods to influences as broad as the contemporary minimalism of John Adams and Steve Reich, the experimental melancholic textures of Radiohead to the progressive jazz precision of Brad Mehldau, ‘The Other Side’ inhabits its own soundworld somewhere in the gaps between chamber, jazz, folk and contemporary classical music.

From the emotive ‘Moments’, the elasticated melodies of ‘Pendulum’, to the fluid lines and compelling urgency of ‘The Boatman’ and ‘Pedal Down’, Quest Ensemble’s compositions fuse layered melodies and rhythmic patterns to create contrapuntal webs of sound. The process involves sharing improvised ideas, building up layers of music on each instrument to create a patchwork of musical themes with a rich vein of surging Reichian rhythms underpinning each.

Fusing their backgrounds in western classical, Indian classical, jazz and improvisational technique, Filipe Sousa (piano), Tara Franks (cello) and Preetha Narayanan (violin) are all graduates of the Guildhall School of Music Leadership Programme.

In May 2014, Quest Ensemble released their much-lauded debut album ‘Footfall’, a collection of part-composed and part-improvised original compositions, steeped in the sense of place that inspired the sound and imagination of their stories. From an ancient leper hospice in Oxford to a stark urban underground rehearsal space, each piece poetically reflects a moment in time, a passing footfall.

Since 2009, Quest Ensemble have regularly worked with schools, colleges, youth and community groups across the UK, leading creative music projects with musicians of all ages and backgrounds, transferring their collaborative composition methods to community settings, enabling others to experience their way of working. Most recently, the trio were commissioned to create a show with visual artist Somang Lee that was premiered at Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon, Portugal as a part of the Big Bang Festival 2018.

Organisations and charities Quest Ensemble have worked with include The Barbican, Aldeburgh Music, Music First, Beita Musica (Palestine), and Sunland Express (Mexico).

“Compositionally complex, inventive in technique, and wonderfully ambiguous in tonality, this was a joy to behold” Jazzwize

“The interplay of musical lines is dextrous and intriguing” London Jazz News

“The sound world is in that intersection between minimalism, post-modernism and jazz with a free flowing between the three… highly effective and affecting” Planet Hugill