The album title Downland is a play both on van Wissem’s Lowlands home,
and the Renaissance Lute composer John Dowland, rumored to have been born in Ireland. The seeds of this collaboration were sown in late 2007, when United Bible Studies were part of the bill for van Wissem’s first Irish concert. Van Wissem began recording tracks for United Bible Studies to overdub and a postal collaboration began in earnest in 2009. The Bible Students were given a free hand, and different band members were drawn to different pieces. Áine O’Dwyers harp playing goes hand in glove with the lute parts, both players favoring hypnotic figures accruing impact over time. The Bible Students have woven murk and mystery around the lucid austerity of Van Wissem’s compositions,together creating an album which is unlike anything in either of their substantial back catalogues, and more than the mere sum of its parts. Limited edition, cover silk screen printed silver on black.