Ensemble Belladonna consists of three women --
Miriam Andersén,
Rebecca Bain, and
Susanne Ansorg -- who hail from Sweden, Canada, and Germany, respectively. The group specializes in singing music of the medieval and early Renaissance periods, and if one were to compare it to
Anonymous 4,
Ensemble Belladonna might well find such suggestion flattering as its members are avid admirers of the "the girls." Nevertheless,
Ensemble Belladonna is significantly different from
Anonymous 4 in that the group plays its own instruments:
Andersén the medieval harp,
Bain the fiddle, and
Ansorg the vielle and rebec. The members of
Ensemble Belladonna met while studying at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, and while they have been together since 1997, Raum Klang's Melodious Melancholye appears to be their first release on disc.