The Mediaeval Baebes mix medieval music with contemporary sounds

May 12, 2000
Web posted at: 5:05 p.m. EST (2105 GMT)

(CNN) -- What can be simultaneously ancient and new? How about centuries-old music?

Ask members of Baltimore Consort, a band specializing in 16th century music that has graced Billboard's Top Ten. Or check with Mediaeval Baebes, a 12-woman vocal group that's sold a quarter-million albums. Their sounds are proof that everything old becomes new again.

The old music is "very accessible," Tina Chancey, of the early folk/Celtic group Hesperus, told WorldBeat correspondent Gary Imlach. "A lot of it is dance music that people just use to have a good time."

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In England, the Mediaeval Baebes find their good time by infusing medieval music with a contemporary sensibility. Their most recent album, produced by the Velvet Underground's John Cale, adds techno beats under their choral singing.

"(Our) sound can be very enchanting, angelic and very hypnotic," Baebes singer Teresa Casella said. "We can be quite raucous and very raw and sexy at the same time."

For Phil Pickett, director of the New London Consort, which has recorded Elizabethan tunes, the fun is in the investigation of the music.

"I love the detective work," he said. "If you add layer upon layer of information ... in the end you can come up with quite a clear picture of how something might have been."

Join WorldBeat this weekend to see how modern musicians are exploring backward, learning about a time when harpsichords, lutes and crumhorns were all the rage, when the "recorder" didn't have a built-in microphone and the thing called a "hacking board" didn't sound so macabre.