The debut of Dutch songwriters Axel Kabbord and Minco Eggersman, Zalig Zijn De Armen Van Geest (translated as “Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit”) is a luminescent collection of slowly awakening, soothing textures. Highly reminiscent of conceptual cousins Pedro the Lion or Red House Painters, the hesitant melancholy inherent in the arrangements echoes the understated yet ethereally gorgeous lilt of the melodies. Whether mixing images of a lost lover and the crucifixion over the dark, moving turns of “In the Light I Wrap My Tears” or presenting an uncomfortably surreal family drama in the rising and falling “The Drive-Way,” the soft, overcast textures give the songs a near-cinematic depth. The ruminative and vaguely worshipful tone of the arrangements exhibits characters straining however apprehensively in the direction of faith in something bigger than themselves. Incredibly, the handful of instrumentals mixed throughout the album’s 12 tracks are arguably the duo’s strongest moments, focusing the aching hymn-like quality of the melodies with an otherworldly precision, filling spaces in a manner that renders words downright impotent.