IMPREC232 IT IS ALL THAT IS MADE BY JOZEF VAN WISSEM PRICE 15 EURO INCLUDES SHIPPING
INC 009 A PRIORI BY JOZEF VAN WISSEM CD PRICE 12 EURO INCLUDES SHIPPING
INC 004 STATIONS OF THE CROSS BY JOZEF VAN WISSEM CD PRICE 12 EURO INCLUDES SHIPPING
INC 001 A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME, ANONYMOUS LUTE SOLOS OF THE GOLDEN AGE- JOZEF VAN WISSEM CLASSICAL CD PRICE 12 EURO INCLUDES SHIPPING
Influences
BAS JAN ADER, FIDUS, WILLIAM BLAKE, THE WANDERVOGEL MOVEMENT, LAIBACH, COIL, JOHN DOWLAND, ROBERT JOHNSON, MORTON FELDMAN, ROLAND BARTHES, ANDY WARHOL, ALFRED TENNYSON, GEORGE BATAILLE, H.P. BLAVATSKY, ALEISTER CROWLEY, CHRIS BURDEN, JACQUES LACAN, J.K. HUYSMANS, ERNST JUNGER, LEOPOLD VON SACHER-MASOCH, GILLES DELEUZE.
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"Composer-lute player Jozef Van Wissem is renowned for his unusual approach of the Renaissance and Baroque lute. He cuts and pastes classical pieces, reverses melodies, adds electronics and processed field recordings made at airport lounges and train stations. The unusual wedlock of composition and improvisation creates an unheard amalgam of contemporary folk and late Renaissance music. He has accomplished the strange feat of bridging the idiom of seventeenth century lute literature and twenty-first century composition. Although Van Wissem uses subtle electronic sound manipulation, he has largely stayed faithful to the particular timbre, resonance and playing technique of the lute. Van Wissem first came to be noticed a few years ago because of his radical conceptual approach to Renaissance lute music: he deconstructed existing compositions, for instance by playing them backwards. He also composes his own pieces for lute, using palindromes and mirrored structures. His music therefore does not have a traditional linear progression, nor leads to a climax, it rather stays on the same level of intensity. His music is quiet and not so much demands concentrated listening, as it will bring the listener in a state of concentrated listening. Van Wissem runs the Incunabulum record label, and performs extensively around the world. He has worked with Tetuzi Akiyama, Maurizio Bianchi and James Blackshaw. With Blackshaw he has formed Brethren of the Free Spirit ( Important Records) His solo CD entitled "It is all that is made" was released by Important Records in March 2009. He has lectured a.o. at Wesleyan Universtity, Mills College and Cambridge University on ‘the liberation of the lute”. Van Wissem has received numerous commisions and grants, most recently from National Gallery, London Van Wissem performs around 80 lute concerts per year and has performed at prestigious festivals and venues like Expo Zaragoza 2008, Spain, Kr-aa-k Festival , Belgium, ZXZW Festival, Holland, Sonorités Festival, France, Serralves em festa Festival, Portugal, Seattle Improvised Music Festival, Suono Per Il Popolo Festival, Montreal, Sintra Music and Dance Festival, Portugal, Byzantine Fresco Museum, Texas, I.C.A, London, and Glasgow, Schindler House, Hollywood.
Some press clippings:
“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
"The way Van Wissem traces and retraces denying the listener any
resolution or catharsis, is also pretty contemporary in its attitude
of refusal; has there ever been a time besides now when more musicians
refuted the expectations of audiences and authorities? The lack of
pay-off makes the music potentially maddening; it actually stymies
linear thought On an even more symbolic level, by constructing pieces
that begin where they end and are therefore potentially endless, he
subverts the march of time" – Dusted Magazine
Ahoy Jozef! This is Themis, Themistoklis, Triple Bath... the sound engineer from Athens! We had a very nice time that night, superb music, food, jokes... Heh! A great pleasure to meet you! I wish you will have a great tour!
"In 'The Mirror of Eternal Light', the Dutch lutist Jozef van Wissem catches his own reflection in tender, minimalist picking and gold-spray overdubs" - David Fricke, senior editor, Rolling Stone Magazine
"Van Wissem seems to breeze across musical boundaries with an effortless fluency" - Pitchfork
"Jozef van Wissem constructs a time bridge which links the 17th and 20th centuries,and, needless to say, the traffic on this bridge moves in both directions. He has made 17th century music into 20th century music" - Brian Marley, Avant Magazine
"Jozef van Wissem has a creative obsession with the concepts of backwards or mirror images. On this cd he applies various palindromes. Van Wissem is accompanied on his gorgeous solos by Gary Lucas who performs a dobro solo that has the sense of intense adventure and motivation" - Eugene Chadbourne
"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" - Nick Southgate The Wire
"the certainties of the 17th century holding tight the ugly beauty that we now see scattered around us. I loved these CDs by Jozef van Wissem, A Rose by any other Name and Stations of the Cross. And then I received a new album, A Priori, and I immediately played it and heard its stark and repetitive intensity, its stately and glacial march. There is nothing quite like it that I have heard before - it is timeless, breathing deeply and exhaling showers of snow, endless circles, mirrors, spirals, the sea. When Jozef plays the lute, he pours out endless space. What can I say but let the rain come, close your eyes and watch the stars fall and rise and fall again" - David Tibet/Current 93
Hey Jozef, good to hear from you and sorry that Dublin date never came through. I tried a few but nobody got back to me about it. No Gotham plans no although I think I might be playing down in Portugal and Spain around the end of May, but tennis is always good. What you up to then?
"It Is All That Is Made" sounds brilliant by the way!
I think 21st might work better. But yeah, we can definitely do something together, let me look into it and we'll set up something. Would be nice to have you over. Hope you're well!
