Estampie is definitely one of my very favourite music bands ever. For the majority of my readers: They do serious medieval music. "serious" meaning they are doing this at the level of profession that you expect from classical musicians. Estampie is doing this for some 20 years, and they're not to be confused with the Spielmannsmusik that you recently find at any of the tourist-laden medieval festival.
At one of those dates when I was travelling to yet-another Free Software related conference, they played a programme called Marco Polo - Music of the Silk Route. Basically they tried to go beyond European medieval music and build bridges to other musical traditions of the same time, such as Khorasan Dotar music from Iran, traditional Mongolian music and some Indian Percussion.
They recently released a Live recording DVD from that project, and I am totally in love with the blend of music they have created. What they have created is "real" world music to me.
And there is more to come. As Michael Popp (the leader of the ensemble) points out in the interview section, "Marco Polo" was just the beginning of a trilogy. I'll definitely make sure that my travel schedule will adjust to the dates of the second and third part of the trilogy. There's no way I'll miss them.