Mediaeval Baebes

Mediæval Bæbes, the top-selling vocal ensemble, originated in 1996 when former Miranda Sex Garden vocalist Katharine Blake sought to translate her interest in medieval history into staged musical performances. Alongside eleven fellow performers and vocalists—Teresa Casella and Audrey Evans from Miranda Sex Garden, comic writer Marie Findley, Nicole Frobusch, Ruth Galloway, Karen Lupton, Claire Ravel, Australian-born Cylindra Sapphire, Carmen Schneider, Nichole Sleet, and New Zealand-born Rachel Van Asch—she forged a modern compositional style infused with pagan elements and spiritual themes from the Middle Ages. Their first release, the 1997 album Salva Nos, achieved the quickest sales of any debut on Venture, Virgin’s classical imprint, while ranking among the year’s standout classical records.

Worldes Blysse arrived two years afterward and likewise charted strongly in Britain. Undrentide, the third album, appeared in autumn 2000 under the production guidance of Velvet Underground alum John Cale. By that point Frobusch, Lupton, and Sleet had departed, leaving Blake to lead a nine-member configuration. The reduced ensemble composed the soundtrack for the 2000 dark comedy American Psycho. Their fourth album, The Rose, emerged in spring 2002, its title drawn from the medieval emblem of love. In addition to performing in Italian, Latin, German, Middle English, and medieval French, the group incorporated medieval Welsh and Russian into its linguistic range. Autumn 2003 brought Mistletoe and Wine, the first holiday collection the Bæbes had recorded and their fifth Nettwerk release, again produced by John Cale. The 2005 album Mirabilis featured the returning lineup of Blake, Casella, Evans, Van Asch, Sapphire, and Findley together with new members Maple Bee and Emily Ovenden, extending the ensemble’s signature fusion of archaic languages, folk customs, and richly textured soundscapes.