Brethren Of The Free Spirit
All Things Are From Him, Through Him And In Him

A Norman Records recommendation (31st January 2008)

This record left our Phil feeling ecstatic.

In an ideal world James Blackshaw would be working here playing his guitar in the corner of the room from 9 til 5. Then we wouldn't have to listen to half the other gash that's released each week. Life would be better and I reckon I'd have a much calmer outlook on life. In the absence of him slaving away here for my sole pleasure I have to appease myself with the reasonably small amount of his recorded output. The newest addition to his family is an album by him & Jozef Wissem under the guise of Brethren Of The Free Spirit. 'All Things Are from Him, Through Him And In Him' is on new label Audiomer. Here we here have 4 tracks showcasing amazing guitar playing and musicianshipery. Blackshaw plays his usual 12 stringer and Van Willemz plays a 13 course baroque lute (whatever one of them is), electronics and Tennis Edits and together they make a rather special record. It's the 12 string guitar that carries this album from start to end with it's bright crispness.It kicks off with a couple of typical suitably familiar Blackshaw tracks which totally are the business. The opener 'The Lifting Of The Veil' sounds very soundtracky indeed. Very emotive and it's perfectly complimented with Van Willemz lute. The title track is one of those cyclical guitar ragas which Blackshaw has seemed to master pretty quickly. It's vintage sounding gear and if you ask me is one of the finest pieces of music I've heard in a while. In fact I think it's the best thing I've heard him do since 'Sunshrine' (my favourite tune he's done).'How The Enencombered Soul Advises' is a dark piece of music which is as claustrophobic as it is sleazy. It makes me think of dark alleys full of tramp juice filled men wavering their filth bodies surrounded by scraggy death cats..... It's a dark piece of music with cats miaowing in the background (oddly enough). If you're interested the cat is called Bun Bun. Then it all ends with 'In Him Is No Sin' which is more cyclical loveliness complimented with some warm electronics and that lute thing again. Works a right proper treat and the two together seem to have developed some musical chemistry.Put simply this album is really good. 4 tracks oozing with passion and emotion. Stick with it as it just gets better and better... BTW Mr. Blackshaw, it's 6.50 an hour plus 'benefits'

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What their label says...

Brethren of the Free Spirit
'All Things are from Him, through Him and in Him'

Brethren of the Free Spirit is composed out of Jozef van Wissem (The Netherlands), who plays the lute, and James Blackshaw (United Kingdom), who plays 12-string guitar. Their first release under the Brethren moniker is called 'All Things are from Him, through Him and in Him', and is loosely based on the heretic writings of 13th Century French mystic Marguerite Porete. The album consists of four contemplative and circular pieces, that were the result of sessions held at Locksley Hall in 2007.

'All Things are from Him, through Him and in Him' is the first release on the MER. Paper Kunsthalle vzw project, audioMER. The record is available on CD in an edition of 1078 copies, and on vinyl, in an edition of 330 copies. Both versions contain artwork by Belgian illustrator Wouter Vanhaelemeesch. Graphic design & typography was handled by Levi Seeldraeyers & Marijke Loozen.

Bio Jozef van Wissem
Jozef van Wissem probably plays and composes for the most unlikely instruments in the world of contemporary improvised music: the Renaissance and Baroque lute. He has accomplished the strange feat of bridging the idiom of seventeenth century lute literature and twenty-first century free improv of the silent type. Although Van Wissem uses subtle electronic sound manipulation, he has largely stayed faithful to the particular timbre, resonance and playing technique of the lute. Van Wissem first came to be noticed a few years ago because of his radical conceptual approach to Renaissance lute music: he deconstructed existing compositions, for instance by playing them backwards.
He also composed his own pieces for lute, using palindromes and mirrored structures. His music therefore does not have a traditional linear progression, nor leads to a climax, it rather stays on the same level of intensity. His music is quiet and not so much demands concentrated listening, as it will bring the listener in a state of concentrated listening - an aspect that makes Van Wissem a natural ally of the current post-reductionist improvising musicians. Van Wissem also runs the Incunabulum label, and performs regularly around the world in duo with guitar-wizard of Captain Beefheart-fame, Gary Lucas. He also works with M.B. / Maurizio Bianchi., Tetuzi Akiyama and Elliot Sharp.
ÊJozef van Wissem attracted attention with his first work for solo lute entitled "Retrograde, A Classical Deconstruction" which consisted of the backwards rendition of original solo lute compositions from around 1600. For two years he appropriated hundreds of original lute compositions to create this work which was inspired by his studies of Renaissance lute with Pat O'Brian in New York City. He discovered that from the Middle Ages on, a common technique in lute composition was the backwards performance of the melody.In general van Wissem's work takes the classical ideas and techniques of lute composition such as retrograde melodies and the application of mirror images, another technique idiomatic to lute tablature of around 1600, and brings them in to the 21 Century. He writes the tablature from bottom right corner to top left and to these inversions he adds new themes, accents and rhythms. In addition he has applied the cut up technique of writer William Burroughs and cut shifted, mixed and pasted the parts together so that a new entity arises. Instead of going back into history to seek out original conventions he moved backward in search of something new. The second application of the mirror images is heard on his CD's "Simulacrum" and "Objects in Mirror are Closer than they Appear". This work is based on musical palindromes, structures which sound the same when played forwards or backwards. His work with palindromes and mirror images are also related to concepts derived from the teaching of Gilles Deleuze and Lacan. His CD, "Simulacrum" consists of works using a combination of long lute notes, which are electronically enhanced in the studio and palindrome compositions, including bransles, which were written for dance. The lute electronics are achieved by inserting a microphone in to the inside body of the lute to capture certain overtones and frequencies allowing him to perform while moving around a large space. His fifth cd "Objects in Mirror are closer than they appear" consists of manipulated airfield recordings, lute palindromes and electronics. His cd "A Rose by any Other name" consists of classical lute pieces from the Golden Age by anonymous composers. Van Wissem has toured extensively, as soloist or together with the likes of Tetuzi Akiyama and Gary Lucas.
(from http://www.jozefvanwissem.com/)

Bio James Blackshaw

When UK-native James Blackshaw plays his 12-string guitar, something spiritual takes place. Performing and recording since 2003, his name is frequently mentioned alongside the likes of Jack Rose, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Sir Richard Bishop and Glenn Jones as one of the most foremost modern pioneers of solo acoustic guitar music. Now at the age of 25, Blackshaw, an untrained musician born and still residing in the suburban environs of Greater London, draws as much inspiration from early religious music, South-Asian folk music and composers such as Arvo Part, Simeon Ten Holt, Steve Reich and Charlemagne Palestine as he does from John Fahey, Robbie Basho and the early Takoma Records roster, constantly breaking boundaries in what could be conceived as a somewhat limited medium. In his part improvised and part written songs, Blackshaw makes expert use of Eastern and Western scales, chord changes reminiscent of European classical music and incredibly intricate fingerpicking patterns to make a sound that is both challengingly minimalistic, yet warm and approachable to anybody who might hear it, with a rare sensitivity that conveys both immense beauty, hope and sadness.
Blackshaw has been featured in a range of magazines across the world including The Seattle Weekly, The Washington Post, Italy's Blow Up magazine and most recently in a one page article in the October 2006 issue of The Wire. His last album, "O True Believers" (Important Records/Bo'Weavil Recordings) also received enthusiastic reviews in Pitchfork, Fakejazz, Uncut, The Wire, Signal To Noise, The Observer (one of the UK's most highly-regarded national newspapers) and many other printed and online magazines.
After succesfully touring Japan, Europe, Scandanavia, US and UK in 2005 and 2006, playing with artists such as Sir Richard Bishop, Espers, Brightblack Morning Light, Feathers, Greg Davis, Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, Sharron Kraus, Simon Finn, Marissa Nadler, Alexander Tucker, Josephine Foster, Seiichi Yamamoto of The Boredoms (with whom he improvised with) and Christina Carter. James Blackshaw has been busy recording a new album, entitled "The Cloud of Unknowing", which will be released by New York's Tompkins Square label in early 2007, alongside CD reissues of his earlier, out-of-print, limited edition albums.

(from http://www.jamesblackshaw.com/)

Selected Press Quotes (James Blackshaw):

"The most gem-like overlooked album this year is neither hairy nor scary; rubber-necking into the great unknown isn't high in its priorities. But it is preternaturally beautiful. "O True Believers" by 24-year-old guitarist James Blackshaw features 10 fingers and 12 strings and, frankly, urinates all over whatever will be the Mercury Prize's token folk nominee next year. Blackshaw is British, but virtually no one has heard of him outside the US folk underground; he deserves ticker-tape parades. His style derives from the Takoma school founded by John Fahey, but that is all detail. Blackshaw's got it all: skills to hyperventilate for, and instinctual loveliness in spades." - Kitty Empire, The Observer, 31/12/06

"In recent months, 24-year-old UK guitarist James Blackshaw has burst fully-formed onto the folk underground, his remarkable talents already seeming at peak maturity... Blackshaw has established himself as an instrumentalist of astonishing grace and delicacy, seeming as though he's gobbled and digested whole the primitive folk canons of Takoma and Vanguard. Relying primarily on 12-string guitar, Blackshaw's intricate creations web together Robbie Basho's wayfaring mysticism, Ben Chasny's soft-focused acid tongues, and the rustic fantasias of Sandy Bull... Blackshaw is able to differentiate himself through his exotic lyricism, stray pan-ethnic flourishes and pure unmasked virtuosity." - Pitchforkmedia.com

"There's an indecent ease to James Blackshaw's guitar playing. His fingerpicking mantras are as melodic as a music box, gliding through dizzying tempos like clockwork. His raga-like instrumentals are not structured as much as woven, teasing out a single melodic strand to explore all it's textural possibilities. Such is the silky control he exherts over his instrument, Blackshaw often sounds more like a court harpist than a backwoods strummer." - Derek Walmsey, The Wire

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