The Wolf Also Shall Dwell With the Lamb

iTunes Review

A companion EP to the preceding 2007 release, All Things Are from Him, Through Him, and in Him, 2008’s The Wolf Also Shall Dwell with the Lamb continues where acoustic 12-string virtuoso James Blackshaw and baroque lute luminary Jozef Van Wissem left off: musing instrumentally on the heretical Christian sect of the 13th and 14th centuries. With Blackshaw picking from a D-A-D-E-A-D tuning and Van Wissem accompanying in D minor, the duo performs four gorgeous, improvised movements that sound as though they were rehearsed beforehand. The opening “The Sun Tears Itself from the Heavens and Comes Crashing Down Upon the Multitude” is as lengthy as its title, starting with minimal intonations plucked by Blackshaw to bring forth relaxing harmonic tones. The title track expresses kinetic motion with repeated arpeggios. The lute’s medieval character is explored on “Into the Dust of the Earth,” while the spare “I Am a Flower of Sharon and a Rose in the Valley” begs for the sonic triptych to be completed with a third EP.