When you think of American indie cinema, Jim Jarmusch’s oeuvre comes to mind pretty quickly. (If you haven’t seen Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law, and Mystery Train, you have some On-Demand viewing to do.) Just as essential to his films as his wry sensibility and noir visuals is original music — which has included collaborations with John Lurie and RZA.
It’s no surprise that Jarmusch makes experimental music too; he recently released his second LP with acclaimed lutenist Jozef Van Wissem, titled Mystery of Heaven. Van Wissem’s minimalist, avant-garde work on the lute — both melodic and warped by effects — blends gorgeously with Jarmusch’s guitar noise, conjuring a kind of medieval soundscape. Stay tuned for the duo’s work on Jarmusch’s “crypto-vampire film” Only Lovers Left Alive, premiering at Cannes this month.
The music on your LPs seems naturally cinematic. Was that intentional?
Jozef Van Wissem: Thank you. I do not write intentionally cinematic pieces. No, I channel the melodies that are around me. They are omnipresent.
Jim Jarmusch: I see our music together like moving landscapes as seen from a moving train or a car, maybe a boat.
Sometimes my electric guitar describes prominent things in the landscape. But more often, against the crystalline foreground of Jozef’s lute, I try to paint in the background mostly with noise and feedback — maybe some pastel clouds rolling by, or a dark storm passing through. Sometimes I try to paint in a soft blur of green trees, sometimes strong rays of bright, white light. Jozef is a very open and sensual musician, and it’s a joy for me to create these landscapes with him.
Why do think the lute is such an underutilized instrument in the modern era?
JVW: The lute became underutilized because the instruments became more complicated to play. They were built with more strings, et cetera, and lute-playing techniques take years to master. The lute gets its due, though. I composed 12 lute pieces for the video game The Sims Medieval, which millions of people have heard by now.
There’s a distinct contrast to what you two do. Are you attracted to a simultaneous presence of darkness and light in music?
JVW: I do not think it’s that black and white, and we kind of reverse roles as well. Personally, I am attracted to both darkness and light, not so grey-area interested.