After a wide-ranging exploration, over a number of consistently fascinating releases, of the baroque mandolin in Italy (with a brief detour to Paris), characterful plucked-string ensemble Artemandoline here return to sample the delights of the mandolin in 18th-century Britain. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the flavour is still very much Italian.

Formed in 2001 by baroque mandolin specialists Juan Carlos Muñoz and Mari Fe Pavón, Artemandoline shrinks and expands according to the requirements of the repertoire. On this occasion, they’re very much in salon mode, with Muñoz and Pavón for the most part joined by a small complement of other plucked strings, including baroque guitar, and cello and harpsichord continuo.

Muñoz and Pavón tend to alternate as soloists, one in the spotlight, the other receding into the ensemble. Thus Muñoz opens to give us a bright account of Giovanni Francesco Weber’s Sonata No 4 – the Larghetto sans harpsichord is especially lovely – while Pavón concludes with Francesco Bartolomeo Conti’s Sonata, which begins with a very effective improvisatory Arpeggio. But the real magic often occurs when the two share the spotlight, such as in Giacomo Merchi’s Trio No 1, where subtle contrasts in tone colour, from a crisp plucking to a diffuse caressing, enhance the dialogic intimacy of the exchanges.

These songlike moments find their natural counterpart in actual songs – the selection of canzonettas by Girolamo Nonnini, Joseph Vernon’s air ‘What is that to you’, a favourite Scottish song and more – sung with great simplicity and not a little charm by Italian soprano Marina Bartoli.