‘ Duo Trobairitz re-create the sound world and the artistic idiom with sufficient authority that, were the original creators of this music to come back and hear these performances … they would have stamped their feet in approval …’
(International Record Review)

'Faye Newton and Hazel Brooks build compelling, eloquent performances around the evocative words of their repertoire'
(Classic FM Magazine *****)

'An exemplary medieval disc from this young duo. With these artists time stands still. A “chill-out” hit in the making'
(The Times)

The pain of unrequited love, the pleasures of spring, foiled seductions and cruel husbands, and the chivalry of serving a liege-lady: in this recording Duo Trobairitz explore different aspects of love as depicted in the music and poetry of the 12th- and 13th-century troubadours and trouvères.

The concept of courtly love began in southern France during the twelfth century. Celebrating an idealized form of love or sexual passion, it developed into a sophisticated and aristocratic code of behaviour. The courtly love ethic spread rapidly through European court society and the music became extensively varied, developing different genres. Duo Trobairitz give examples of the canso (a song that speaks pleasingly of love), the alba (a dawn song, in which a lovers’ tryst is interrupted by the coming of dawn), the pastourelle (usually about the attempted seductions of a peasant girl by a knight) and other styles, by turns humorous and tragic.