The Wolf Also Shall Dwell with the Lamb

They Say...

Review by Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

Named for the heretical Christian sect of the 13th and 14th centuries, the Brethren of the Free Spirit are 12-string guitarist James Blackshaw and vanguard Baroque lute master Jozef Van Wissem ("Baroque" is a noun here). The pair issued All Things Are from Him, Through Him, and in Him in 2007, in a limited edition of 1000 copies that sold out quickly. Like its predecessor, The Wolf Shall Also Dwell with the Lamb is a brief set at 30 minutes. It contains four structured improvisations played in DADEAD tuning on Blackshaw's guitar and D-Minor tuning on the lute. The feel is lyric, relaxed, and quite deliberate. The pair showcases tonal variations in mode, texture, and dynamic, all within a proscribed range of expressive possibilities. Where the first album was more haunting and nearly ambient and openly experimental, this one is more communicative, with lots of exchanges in both rhythmic pulse and open string drones that offer a dialogue between instruments and with space itself -- check the beautiful title cut. The sound of this collaboration, like its title, is mystical in a sense, but that's because it is rooted in something very close to earthiness via the material "woodenness" of the two instruments, which can be heard plainly in the mix. This is a sound we don't hear on records much anymore. Blackshaw, who is the better known of the pair, is less focused on his own sense of pyrotechnics here. His acumen on his instrument is clear, but it's expressed more in terms of control and restraint than in blurring his string tones together as he often does on his solo offerings. The intricacy of the dialogue between these players is best heard on "Into the Dust of the Earth," where each player takes a turn feeling for the margin of the melodic path while keeping to the inside of it. Their give and take feels effortless and seemingly sings. Given that this duo has expressed two very different sets of sounds in their two collaborations, it would seem that they have more to explore as well. Let's hope so.