The Night Dwells in the Day

Josef Van Wissem is on a mission, to transform the image of that ancient instrument, the lute, and “to update it and also make it sexy again.” Born in Holland, he studied in the US, and after mastering classical renaissance and baroque styles he began to branch out, matching the lute against drones and electronica to create a brooding, atmospheric style that is ideally suited to film music. Van Wissem met and played with the filmmaker and guitarist Jim Jarmusch in New York, a collaboration that led to Van Wissem’s celebrated soundtrack for Only Lovers Left Alive in 2013. The new album continues his experiments in matching the ancient and modern. Many of the tracks are instrumental, and start with simple, repeated lute themes or riffs that build in intensity, with minimalist melodies, percussion and electronica added in. On the bleakly atmospheric ‘The Call of the Deathbird’, Van Wissem adds vocals, and is joined by the voice of Hilary Woods, while the finale, ‘The Day of the Lord’, is even more gloomy. Based on an ancient hymn, it matches throbbing electronica against a jaunty lute theme and the half-spoken lyrics, warning of darkness and death, and that ‘the sun is sinking fast, the daylight dies.’