The Portraits

The Portraits, a song writing duo from the British Isles, released their first CD album, Kin, on 6th November 2006. Jeremy and Lorraine Millington have been playing and writing music in union since 1995, but the new album is the result of two years' work and a number of life changing experiences. Recorded largely at home in France, it nonetheless retains a uniquely British Isles slant in its at times humorous portrayal of bereavement.

As the trip-folk outfit Sensorypulse, duo Lorraine Reilly and Jeremy Millington cut a successful niche for themselves in the Bristol music scene of the 1990s. Lorraine had grown up around traditional Irish music, and was taught the tin whistle by her folk musician grandfather Michael, a homage to whom is included on the new album in the song that takes his name. Upon moving to Britain in the early 1990s, she came across music teacher and songwriter Jeremy, the son of a diplomat, who was a classically trained pianist with a music degree, and who at the time was experimenting with ideas loosely based around the Bristol Trip-Hop sound as made famous by Portishead. They might have allowed the Sensorypulse project to come to its natural fruition with a major label signing, which was in the offing, were it not for their self-confessed musical itinerancy. Pianist and singer Jeremy describes it thus: “our greatest downfall is also what keeps us fresh: we embrace, even thrive on, constant change. We have an innate fear of stagnation, of becoming too safe.” So the hunt for greater musical and lyrical depth led them to new locations, notably the cultural buzz of La Rochelle, France.

We play mostly acoustic gigs now as a duo, mostly in France but considering dates in the UK and further afield for the coming year.

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Acoustic guitars and electric/real piano