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individually but an overview of their style will be enough. Using intricate vocal arrangements against a sparse musical accompaniment the group provide a backdrop of sound that immediately evokes a distant time. One song will find them in full flight all eight singing to provide rousing chants that must have been the dance music of its time, and at other times on beautiful voice cascades over the half heard strings and bells that whisper in the background. Sometimes drums and recorders or even a harp or dulcimer will be chasing the words, and at a turn the haunting vocals will float by themselves through the track. Whatever the style, the vocals are rich, luxurious textiles and are made of evocative sounds, ever unique, ever seductive.

The words on most of the songs, as I mentioned before are in a version of English that will make them alien to the modern speaker, but for that they gain an exotic quality and a mystical edge. It is no different from listening to music in Gaelic or Gregorian Latin chants, the lack of literal understanding in no way detracts from the affect. Think of the vocals purely as an instrument and it makes perfect sense. Those that are not in Middle English could be in anything from Welsh or French to Spanish or Italian, but it matters not, it's the overall affect of the music that is important.

As well as being a fantastic way of keeping the past alive, the music herein is a smooth and relaxing affair, rich in otherworldly sounds and evoking a distant age. That distant age may have been an unpleasant time to live in, give me the car, the phone and central heating any day, but this reworking of its musical creations is worth ever effort that it took to create the concept, the band and the album. Worlds Blysse then is a fantastic mix of mediaeval songs, classical delivery, lush vocal harmony and a relaxing fantasy edge. But this is more than the usual mix of influences and ideas given birth via a modern recording studio, this is music that also strives for historical accuracy and on every level it works.

Learn more about this author, Dave Franklin.
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