Jozef Van Wissem

Jozef Van Wissem is ‘both an avant-garde composer and a baroque lutenist, and thus no stranger to dichotomy,’ (New York Times). He has been ‘pushing the lute’s agenda out of the academy and into more accessible circles’ (Pitchfork).  The titles of his works often have a Christian-mystical appeal. His solo lute compositions are featured in the Sims medieval video game. In 2013 he  won the Cannes Soundtrack Award for best score at the Cannes Film Festival for  "Only Lovers Left Alive". A prolific composer of music for film, Van Wissem has released four records with the film director Jim Jarmusch.  In  December 2017 he was invited to perform the madrigal depicted in Caravaggio’s painting ‘The Lute Player ‘(1596) at The Hermitage. In 2022 Van Wissem released the neo- classical solo lute record " Behold I Make All Things New" and the soundtrack to Nosferatu . “The soundtrack goes from silence to noise over the course of 90 minutes, culminating in “dense, slow death metal.” (NewYork Times)