Husband/wife duo, Spirit Of Bryneddin, provide a glimpse of a mystical world where nothing is as it seems, but where joy and contentment reign supreme, with their new album, Time Is Unfolding
Release Date: 1st December 2025
Label: Self Release
Format: CD / Digital
BLISS & CONTENTMENT ARE ALL-PERVADING
We stumbled upon husband & wife duo Spirit Of Bryneddin almost by accident, and we’re so very glad that we did. Jemima and Jeremy Jameson have been writing together for the past four years and Time Is Unfolding is their second album. It follows their 2023 debut, Catch The Whisper – and it offers an enticing glimpse of the couple’s private world, where nothing is quite as it seems, but where a sense of bliss and contentment is all-pervading.
Jeremy was a session drummer back in the 1980s but he gave that up to pursue other interests and it wasn’t until he suffered a bout of illness that he felt the compunction to return to music. It was then that he discovered Jemima’s talent for singing and writing lyrics. They took it from there. The pair are also proprietors of Chapel Lawn Studio, nestled somewhere deep in the South Shropshire hills near Ludlow, so the story goes…
EPITOME OF ETHEREAL
Time Is Unfolding is all Jemima and Jeremy’s own work. The songs are inspired by poetry, myths, legends, people and places that have impacted upon the couple’s lives. These are songs with a LOT of content, full of nooks and crannies that hold on to snippets of stories that listeners will still be discovering long after they’ve engaged with the album.
Jemima’s voice is the epitome of ‘ethereal,’ that elusive quality that we often describe yet seldom fully appreciate – and there’s an enchanting mysticism to her lyrics, too. That’s evident right from the opening bars of the album’s title track, the song that gets Time Is Unfolding underway. It’s a song that sets the tone for the comforting, enthralling theme of the album, with strings and Jeremy’s soft drumbeat enhancing the impact of that voice.
THE ESSENCE OF THE ALBUM
The strings are sweet and rich and Jemima’s dreamlike tones are enhanced by other-worldly harmonies for Shadows and Light. It’s a song that encourages the listener to surrender and succumb to the dreams on offer – the middle ground between Kate Bush and The Incredible String Band, perhaps.
Strings play a slightly more significant role in the gentle The Tiny Troubadours. The sound is full and satisfying and the feel is almost medieval. Jemima’s voice skims lightly over the rich accompaniment as she sings of madrigals and canticles.
Awash with folk imagery – fishing boats, storms, forest tracks and dancers – Butterfly Storm! is the album’s longest track and, arguably, its centrepiece. The lyrical train of thought verges upon the psychedelic and the musical structure is an engaging blend of the orchestral and the intimate, with Jemima’s multi-tracked vocals retaining the dreamlike essence of the album.
THERE BE DRAGONS…
The anthemic One More Turn Around The Sun is, just maybe, my favourite track. Piano and acoustic guitar leave lots of space for Jemima’s echo-y vocals as she sings the: “The world goes round and it happens again; the sun, the sea and the skies remain. One more turn around the sun, one more year has just begun” refrain. It occurred to me that, perhaps, this is what Pink Floyd might have sounded like, had UFO and Middle Earth been folk clubs.
The strident piano takes on a harpsichord tone for the baroque-flavoured Hesperides. The cello gives the strings an added resonance and Jemima’s voice rises above it all as she recounts the golden sunsets that illuminate the mythical orchards of the heavenly Hesperides. Beware, though, for here there be dragons…
VISIONS OF EARTHLY PARADISE
Lush, soft guitar sits atop the sweeping strings as Jemima evokes a dreamlike float through the alleyways of Barcelona, in the excellent Gaudi (Works of Wonder). Her lyrics could be mistaken for fanmail as she pays tribute to the esteemed architect’s “Visions of Earthly paradise,” before she concludes that “Heaven’s architect on Earth lives on…” It’s one of those songs that doesn’t need an accompanying video; all the imagery required is contained right there – within the words and the music.
Jemima’s absorbing story-song, The Lady And The Hare, is delightfully told and beautifully accompanied, before things take a poppy turn for Letters In The Attic. Bass, drums and piano provide the music and Jemima’s voice almost materializes into solid form as she recounts yet another engaging story. And, when the solitary trumpet is let loose, the effect could almost be described as ‘elegiac.’
AN INSIGHT…
Crashing waves set the scene for the mysterious Witchlight, another song with a folky, baroque feel. Lyrics like: “Witchlight – nothing is quite as it seems; Witchlight – weaving a dance through his dreams” summarise the impression left by the entire album, as Jemima recounts the story of a witch’s fleeting visit to mortal lands.
A spacy sequence of sound introduces closing track White Sands. Jemima’s voice is as dreamlike as her lyrics and the guitar and rich strings provide an equally hypnotic accompaniment. Time Is Unfolding is an excellent, intriguing album; an insight to a calmer, happier state of mind, where things can get a bit weird sometimes, but always turn out for the best.
Highly recommended.
Watch the official video to Shadows And Light – a track from the album – below:
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