Its colourful performances, drawing on improvisation, have won the admiration of audiences and critics alike, and its CDs Songs from the Crusades and Gace Brulé were nominated for the title of classical Record of the Year by the leading Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat in 2000 and 2004, respectively.
Oliphant has appeared abroad in Sweden, France and elsewhere and at numerous Finnish music festivals.
In addition to giving concerts of its own and performing on other occasions, it was one of the architects of the production of the medieval liturgical drama Ludis Danielis and has premiered new Finnish music.
Representing polyphonic music are works by Guillaume de Machaut, Francesco Landini and Oswald Wolkenstein, and Ars Antiqua.
The basic sound is produced by the human voice, fiddle, recorder, hammered dulcimer and medieval lute, but the ensemble can also turn its hand to many of the instruments familiar in the Middle Ages: citole, bombard, bagpipes, slide trumpet, symphony, double flute, bells, Jew's harp and many kinds of drums and other percussion instruments.