We will never know, write Trio Mediaeval in the booklet, what the innumerable ancient songs and tunes of the first Icelandic settlers sounded like. If we could somehow conjure up those sounds from the late 800s they’d be fascinating indeed but also probably rather morose and perhaps even a touch dull over time (if you’re a fan of, say, harmony). Here, the trio is joined by trumpeter Arve Henriksen for an echt-ECM concept in which they ‘let the timeless tales inspire us to create something new’.

But their imaginative flight is based on considerable experience and expertise with the material itself – material that includes monophonic chants from Scandinavia (hymns to St Sunniva and St Birgitta), the two-voice hymn of St Magnus of Orkney (which once fell under a Norwegian diocese) and some traditional lullabies and stern love songs. Most made their way to Iceland; the title ‘Rímur’ refers to the chanted narrative poems that form part of the country’s early oral tradition.

The trio sing with their usual combination of precision, imagination and deep care with text and ornamentation. Arve Henriksen’s trumpet sounds like a flute, a seabird, a human voice, a distant wind and just occasionally like the breathy trumpet of Scandinavian jazz cliché.

Anna Maria Friman’s resonant, zingy Hardanger fiddle has particular allure. Some of the songs themselves, as in the simple Swedish shanty ‘Du är den första’ (‘Your hand is the first I have ever held’), move deeply with their simplicity. If the idea of a semi-distant Nordic cousin to Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble’s ‘Officium’ series appeals, this is worth procuring.