melonious quartet
random notes

     From: Gunduz Kayra (gunduzkayra@turk.net)
in case you haven't heard them check out: "Au Sud De La Mandoline"
(Melonious Quartet/Modern Mandoline Quartet - ED 13088).
Very good FZ track (King Kong) - 4 mandolines!
All the best,
Gunduz Kayra

     From: Marc De Bruyn (emdebe@village.uunet.be)
French band initiated by Patrick Vaillant (since 1996), togerher with Thomas Bienabe, Jean-Louis Ruf and Pascal Giordano; and they all play the mandoline!

     From: Louis Gibson, Amazon.com reviewer
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.

See also:
http://www.meloniousquartet.com/