About the event

A concert of avant-garde composer Jozef van Wissem, music associate of Jim Jarmusch. They recorded four albums together and lately Jarmusch has invited Wissem to create a soundtrack to his new film Only Lovers Left Alive. This year Dutch lute player received Cannes Soundtrack Award for his work. He will play the music from the soundtrack at a concert during American Film Festival.

Wissem’s music is uncluttered and direct, with a viscerally hypnotic and emotional impact and delivered with an ascetic intensity reflected in his biblical titles. Long form graceful melodies create a transcendental pastoral world and minimalist mirror images are repeated in order to slow the act of listening. An incessantly touring musician, Van Wissem’s intense live shows have taken him all over the world and he has performed at festivals like All Tomorrow’s Parties. Van Wissem studied lute in New York  City. He lectures on ‘The Liberation of the Lute’ and was commissioned by London’s National Gallery to compose a sound piece to Hans Holbein’s painting “The Ambassadors”.  He is in a guitar and lute duo with Jim Jarmusch and he is scoring Jarmusch’s vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive.  For The Mystery Of Heaven, (released on Sacred Bones Records) they worked with Tilda Swinton. Van Wissem composed and performed lute and voice pieces for the Sims Medieval video game and he is writing more and more for cinema. A one of a kind black lute was especially built for him and is featured on his upcoming solo release Nihil Obstat. He lives in New York City.

www.jozefvanwissem.com