Dutch Lutenist Jozef Van Wissem is renowned for his experimental approach to Renaissance and Baroque forms of lute music. By cutting-and-pasting classical pieces, constructing palindromic melodies, or adding electronics and processed field recordings, he manages to seamlessly bridge the musical languages of 17th and 21st centuries. If this approach seems coldly academic on paper, the results are anything but: his music is uncluttered and direct, with a viscerally hypnotic and emotional impact, and delivered with an ascetic intensity reflected both in his Biblical titles and his No Wave influences. An incessantly touring musician, van wissem's hypnotic live shows have taken him all over the world. He has records out on Important Records and his own Incunabulum labe He has collaborated with James Blackshaw, Keiji Haino and Richard Bishop. With Jim Jarmusch on electric guitar he is releasing a duo record early 2012Van Wissem studied lute in New york with Pat O'Brien and released a classical lute CD " A Rose By Any Other Name" consisting of anonymous lute pieces. He lectures on 'the liberation of the lute' ( At Harvard, Wesleyan University, Mills College amongst others) and was commissioned by London's National Gallery to compose a sound piece to Hans Holbein's painting "The Ambassadors". His work is featured more and more in documentaries and feature films, Van Wissem composed and performed lute and voice pieces for the new Sims Medieval video game and lives in New York.
He performs about 80 concerts per year around the world and has appeared live on national tv and radiostations, twice on the Dutch Vrije Geluiden Vpro TV show and has performed at prestigious festivals and venues like All Tomorrow's Parties, Expo Zaragoza 2008, Spain, Kr-aa-k Festival , Incubate Festival, Holland, Sonorités Festival, France, Serralves em festa Festival, Portugal, Seattle Improvised Music Festival, Suono Per Il Popolo Festival, Montreal, Byzantine Fresco Museum, Texas, I.C.A, London, and Glasgow, Schindler House, Hollywood,, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Rotterdamse Schouwburg,, Muziekcentrum Frits Philips, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Meteo Festival France.
"In "The Mirror of Eternal Light," the Dutch lutist Jozef van Wissem catches his own reflection in tender, minimalist picking and gold-spray overdubs."-
- ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE
" HYPNOTIC MINIMALIST FIGURES SEEM TO BREEZE ACROSS MUSICAL BOUNDARIES WITH EFFORTLESS FLUENCY'
_PITCHFORK
"Jozef van Wissem has been slowly reinventing the lute for the last three decades. Among the slew of fast-picking, fancy-fretting guitar players so prevalent today, his lute's voice is a quiet oasis, and Stations of the Cross a small masterpiece". The Wire
"On A Rose by any other name the most elaborate figurations seem modest, especially given the lute's anachronistically mellow sound" - Robert Christgau, the dean of american rock critics
