Film concert: Der Müde Tod (Between Two Worlds) + live: Jozef van Wissem
Silent film by Fritz Lang (Metropolis) about a girl who can get her lover back from Death. With live music by composer and lute player Jozef van Wissem.
In Lang’s expressionist classic the girl must prevent the extinction of three burning candles. Each candle represents a person fleeing death. Only if she manages to complete this mission, can she win back her lover.
The film is divided into episodes, set in different continents and times: from nineteenth century Baghdad to Venice during the Renaissance and the imperial court in China. Jozef van Wissem lets the music travel with him: his composition follows the regional folk music of the locations featured in the film, but he also adds contemporary musical ideas. The film’s theme – love is stronger than death – resonates in the music.
Jozef van Wissem (Maastricht, 1962) is a minimalist composer and lute player, who wrote the score for ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE by Jim Jarmusch, the director with whom he released the album AMERICAN LANDSCAPES earlier this year. He was described by The New York Times as ‘both an avant-garde composer and a baroque lute player’. In this essay, Van Wissem takes us inside his work process: https://www.popmatters.com/joz.....