What We Do

As a duo we cover - Recorders, Shawms (early oboes), Lutes, Hurdy Gurdy, Bagpipes, Percussion and Vocals, however we often expand the groups to work with fiddle players, other strings, extra voices etc to add to our number for a more bombastic sound!

Lutes, recorders, voices are what you might expect, but you'll also hear guitars bagpipes, dulcian (early bassoon), percussion, shawms. We also work with violinists, viola da gamba players and other winds for this repertoire

In this period the lute grows to become the mighty theorbo, recorders change shape and become more soloistic. You'll hear lots of guitars and we often add to our forces with harpsichord, cello, viola da gamba and violins/violas for larger-scale repertoire from this period.

This period sees us leaning more into the guitar and vocals repertoire, although there is still some music for recorders and theorbo at the start. Plus we love to arrange music to suit our forces as well.

Both Emily and Arngeir have played a great deal of repertoire from the modern period, and not just classical either! Arngeir plays a lot of jazz (in fact he started out as a punk rocker!) and Emily improvises and has played in pop and folk fusion bands. We both work as session players regularly for bands, TV and film soundtracks

After the day as a rigorous historical researcher ends, we love to experiment with other sounds and new music. We are happy to share this joy through jam sessions, experimenting with effects and electronics to create something new and vibrant out of the ancient repertoire we know and love.