Album Description Brethren of the Free Spirit is guitarist/composer James Blackshaw and lutenist/ composer Jozef van Wissem. Named after a cult of 13th century Northern European religious heretics, this duo plays with an appropriately zealous intensity. Brethren of the Free Spirit debuted in New York, then went on a crusade through the Lowlands, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, and London, even appearing on the Dutch National VPRO TV show Vrije Geluiden. Intricate phrases circle and spiral in on themselves, and in the end it's the subtle shifts in rhythm and tonal coloration that provide a kind of transcendence in a sea of repetition. The drawings on the cover, by Belgian brethren Wouter Van Haelemeesch, reference Greek myths as well as medieval alchemical emblems by the likes of Michael Maier.