Jozef van Wissem - The Night Dwells In The Day
(c) 2024 incunabulum
Artist....: Jozef van Wissem
Album.....: The Night Dwells In The Day
Source....: WEB/MP3
Tracks....: 7
Genre.....: Folk
Label.....: incunabulum
Encoder...: LAME 3.100
Quality...: 320 kbps / 441kHz / Full Stereo
URL.......: http://deezer.com/album/519822982
Tracklist:
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1. The Devil Is A Fair Angel And The Serpent A Subtle Beast 3:32
2. The Call Of The Deathbird (feat. Hilary Woods) 9:17
3. With Our Hands Our Hearts To Raise 5:45
4. In Exile Here We Wander 3:56
5. Slowly The Rays Of Daylight Fade 5:23
6. May The Bright Gate Welcome You 5:04
7. The Day Of The Lord 3:42
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36:39
Total:89.11 MB / 36:39
Release Notes:
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Today Dutch lute player and composer Jozef Van Wissem announces details of his
forthcoming album æThe Night Dwells in the DayÆ, set for release on January
19th.
ôIt's like a part of my body,ö says Jozef Van Wissem of the relationship he has
to his chosen instrument, the lute. ôThe complexity of it is what keeps me going
because you can always find something new.ö
The ability to constantly extract something different and explore fresh terrain
is evident throughout Van WissemÆs sprawling back catalogue and up to his latest
album, æThe Night Dwells in the DayÆ. Over the years heÆs released countless
solo albums stretching into double figures, thereÆs been collaborations with Jim
Jarmusch and Tilda Swinton, award-winning computer game soundtracks, along with
award-winning film soundtracks, from JarmuschÆs Only Lovers Left Alive to Pierre
CretonÆs 2023 film A Prince.
Since studying the lute in New York with Patrick O'Brien in the 1990s, Van
Wissem has gone on to create works equally as rooted in classical Renaissance
and Baroque forms of lute music, as contemporary sounds spanning drones,
electronics and field recordings. Throw in some of his formative influences from
the no wave and industrial scenes, alongside a dedicated approach to minimalism
and this has resulted in Van Wissem producing distinct and singular work whose
sound is often a marriage of opposites; meditative and intense, forward thinking
but with a sense of the arcane. The Quietus has called him ôprobably the most
famous lutenist in the worldö.
The genesis for his latest album began during lockdown in Warsaw, where Van
Wissem splits his time between Rotterdam. ôThe Call of the Deathbirdö was the
first song he wrote from the album and is the first to be shared, along with an
accompanying video today. Over a hypnotic yet beautifully fluid and plucked
melody - captures scenes of deserted streets, death and the intense isolation
that gripped us all. One of the relatively rare tracks that Van Wissem sings on
- along with some stirring and enveloping guest vocals from Hilary Woods (who
will tour with Van Wissem later this year û details below) - his towering voice
circles above the music much like the swooping deathbird he sings of.
Normally Van Wissem writes all the music for one album within a confined period
but this one song from a few years ago stuck around and took on a new lease of
life and so joined a bunch of freshly written songs for the album. ôThat song
became something completely different after we made a video for it,ö says Van
Wissem, who shot a beautiful 10 minute short in WarsawÆs Soviet Mausoleum where
the ashes of 20,000 Soviet soldiers lie. ôEvery time I leave Warsaw, there is
this beautiful open space that I see and I wanted to make a video there,ö he
says. ôIt has this aesthetic that is symmetric, eerie and militant. But it had
nothing to do with the war, this was before Ukraine. In our film the silence of
the lute replaces the violent rifle.ö
While one song written during, and about, the pandemic came to be the albumÆs
centrepiece, the rest of the album grapples with the world as it moved on and
all the dualism and dichotomies that followed. ôIt has to do with darkness and
light,ö Van Wissem says of the album. ôThe title can mean different things to
people but sometimes people say that if I play a happy piece of music that it
still sounds sad. So this is why I came up with that title.ö
What Van Wissem manages to do so interestingly and eloquently on this album, and
with much of his work, is merge rich musical traditions and history with a
contemporary sense of exploration and experimentation. The Renaissance and
Baroque lute music he studies and plays is so old itÆs written on tablature
notation of the time that few musicians understand and know how to play. While
he also plucks images, song titles and lyrics from dusty old books to give them
a recontextualised lease of life by being integrated into the present-day. ôI
like to go to markets and find old lyrics that nobody uses and that are not
online,ö he says. ôIt's like this forgotten world somewhere and that really
interests me.ö
- Daniel Dylan Wray
credits