The terms “lute” and “modern pop culture” might not seem to have a particularly involved relationship. Yet it is specifically with this bulky, archaic instrument that the avant-garde composer Jozef van Wissem has charmed his fans, who include James Roberto “Jim” Jarmusch (the director of pop-cinema milestones such as Night on Earth, Dead Man, or Coffee and Cigarettes) for a solid two decades. His music for the nocturnal Detroit tribute “Only Lovers Left Alive”, the fruit of a collaboration with Jarmusch’s band SQÜRL, won him the award at the Cannes Film Festival for best soundtrack; London’s National Gallery commissioned a work from him; the soundtrack to the video game The Sims Medieval also carries van Wissem’s signature. Despite all of this success, however, van Wissem’s music is anything but placative. Sinister etudes and agitated temperaments form taut, suspenseful arcs with nods to both baroque and minimal music as well as hypnosis. The spiritual wanderings characteristic of van Wissem’s music are aptly gestured to in the title of his most recent collaboration with Primadonna Obscura Zola Jesus: To lose yourself forever is eternal happiness. 

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