The Mediæval Bæbes are an English ensemble of female musicians founded by Miranda Sex Garden member Katharine Blake in the 1990s, featuring some of her MSG cohorts as well as other friends who share her love of medieval music. The lineup often rotates from album to album, and ranges from 6 to 12 members.
Each album features traditional medieval songs and poetry set to music, mostly arranged by Blake specifically for the ensemble, alongside varying numbers of original compositions. They sing in a variety of languages, including Latin, Middle English, French, Italian, Russian, Swedish, Welsh, Irish Gaelic, modern English and the nearly extinct Cornish. Their vocals are backed by medieval instruments, including the recorder and cittern, played by the singers or fellow musicians.

The Bæbes' musical pieces run the gamut from extremely traditional, such as their version of The Coventry Carol on Salva Nos, to songs that feel traditional but are much more modern, such as their rendition of Summerisle, a song written for Robin Hardy's 1973 cult film Wicker Man. John Cale added non-medieval instruments, including saxophone and electric guitar, to some of the arrangements on Undrentide, although with subsequent albums the band returned to more traditional instruments. Even with these instruments, however, the band's current style is quite different from medieval authentic performance groups, as it displays significant modern influence.

I must admit,t his does not rock my boat too much. Too much rock n roll for me.

I am trying to remember what the ladies group (I think from Belgium) were called that sang mediaeval song and updated them a little bit.

I would have to ask Marie-Lousie, she'd know.

HamsterHuey said:

I have all their albums as well as their live DVD. If they sound too modern for you then their first album Salva Nos might appeal to you the most. It's the most traditional--many songs are a cappella.

sextonseven said:

Maybe these live clips just do not appeal to me. I will check some of their stuff.

Found them! Marie Louise knew!

Belgium trio Laïs used mediaeval arrangements for their debut album, but used modern (mostly Dutch language) lyrics.
The combi was really refreshing.


[Edited 4/14/08 9:53am]

And one live. In English. And also rocky, but still somewhat more rooted in a folk tradition and mixing it up in a sexier way than the babes.

But thanks for pointing the babes out, Eric! I will search out more of their stuff.

HamsterHuey said:

no problem i just wanted to break up the usual suspects on here. i think it's cool the Baebes have managed to merge modern with mediaevel. much the same way Loreena works her magic.

i hope they come back to the US so i can check them out.

ehuffnsd said:

They toured in the U.S. last year, but the closest place to NY was in some small town in Conn. Maybe if it wasn't a weekday I could have driven up there. What kind of artist tours the U.S., but doesn't play in NYC?

sextonseven said:

maybe it was a Rennasiance Faire?

ehuffnsd said:

I don't think it was. They went from Baltimore to some hall or College in Conn. I guess they just couldn't find an available spot within the time frame that they were on the east coast.

I saw Katherine Blake's previous band Miranda Sex Garden live once at the Limelight church back in the 90s. That was perfect.

ehuffnsd said:

Ah, just found the Conn. venue. It was this place that they played and on a Thursday (Oct. 18th):

http://www.ehccc.com/

HamsterHuey said:

I just got around to watching the initial clips posted and those rock guitars are very atypical of the Baebes music. I'm guessing that was added for the live performance only because the albums don't sound like that. There might be some electronic bits here in there, but they stay away from hard rock.