Triphonia is an ensemble from Berlin comprising three women, all of whom sing as well as playing instruments: Gaby Bultmann specialises in bowed instruments, Amanda Simmons in harp, Leila Schoeneich in recorder. Although all three have been involved in various recordings over the past two decades, this is apparently their debut recording as a group. They display a wide variety of instrumental colours and often lively playing of substantial virtuosity. They are particularly resourceful in their percussion, drawing very heavily on the Arabic traditions.

Their programme goes through various kinds of women’s songs in the Middle Ages, neatly grouped according to theme, and ranging through most available languages (just no Italian or Provençal). Two of the most energetic and successful performances here are of the Carmina Burana song “Ich was ein chint” and of the cantiga “De vergonna nos guardar”. Here they pick up on the excitement of the texts and often throw caution to the wind, with exciting effects. In the two longest pieces here, the cycle of Martin Codax and Neidhart’s “Blozen wir den anger ligen sâhen”, it could be thought that they impeded the flow of the music by being too eager to enliven it with different colours and different riffs.

Quite often the tuning sounds less than ideal, particularly the fifths: that may be something to do with theories about temperament (there are plenty of these floating around), but it is all the same a touch distracting. In general the performances are spirited and attractive.