Jozef Van Wissem - When Shall This Bright Day Begin (2016)

The Dutch minimalist Jozef Van Wissem s celebrated lute compositions have met with universal acclaim, even bringing him the 2013 Cannes Film Festival Soundtrack Award for his score of Only Lovers Left Alive, a vampire film by Jim Jarmusch. When Shall This Bright Day Begin features eight new compositions that will feel both familiar and fresh, with Van Wissem pushing his compositions subtly away from a rigid contemporary classical style into a more open sound with an almost experimental dark folk/rock orientated emphasis. Van Wissem even quite literally opens up his work, as he invited renowned artist Zola Jesus for two collaborations.

Gorgeous, haunting, mesmerizing ... seductive and virtuosic ... Dutch minimalist composer Jozef Van Wissem moves away from contemporary classical music and towards experimental folk on his new album When Shall This Bright Day Begin. It s a gorgeous, haunting, mesmerizing twist that pays big dividends on his new single Ruins, which features the incomparable Zola Jesus. Meanwhile Van Wissem s lute playing is seductive and virtuosic, as its warmness pulls the listener deep into the music only to be slayed again by Zola Jesus ethereal vocals. -- Pop Matters