Having gained renown as a winner of the Cannes Soundtrack Award in 2013, Brooklyn-based Dutch composer Jozef van Wissem is something of an expert lute player and is no stranger to getting Drone-like music from it. We Adore You, You Have No Name (Consouling Sounds), van Wissem’s latest album, is a journey through the archaic and the contemporary, the rustic and the mystical.
Opener ‘How You Must Leave’ is a poignant, traditional Folk instrumental, but the tone of that lute and the method in which it’s picked transforms it into a voice. The ensuing ‘Deliverance’, however, brings the sound forward a few centuries to the present day: van Wissem’s voice echoing the album’s title. It mirrors the chords, still sparing yet electrified and vibrating as a full, resonant bass drum keeps a lazy beat to a chiming, mesmeric, utterly charming song.
Despite the heavy reliance on one instrument, each track takes a different path. ‘You Know That I Love You’ returns to the sound of the ancients, the lute the sole element yet played with such love and urgency that emotions can’t fail to be stirred.
‘Bow Down’ initially speaks with no voice, van Wissem’s proficiency producing fantastic expression until his deep, cavernous chant adds commandment to the initially encouraging strings. ‘Unto Thee I Lift Up Mine Eyes’, meanwhile, sees the strings adopt a slight Country twang in places, adding an attractive accessibility to the romantic, slow tango effects of the tune’s body.
‘Beyond the Brook of Blood, the Rain is Fire’ is, as one would expect, driven by ominous-sounding chords but the melodies and harmonising are delicious, the riff morose yet profoundly wise, astutely piquing every nerve and heartstring, the pace and effects swelling around van Wissem’s urgent incantation. When the higher chords enter the effect is uplifting, yet when the feel drops to one of sad foreboding there remains, paradoxically, utter joy in such sounds. Similarly, the closing ‘When the Hour of Salvation Comes the Earth Is Made to Flow With Honey’ is as euphoric as its epic title suggests, an oriental feel coating every brief, brittle chord in happiness and contentment.
How rare it is for an album of such few ingredients to be so effusive, so meaningful and thought-provoking. With its daring simplicity yet wondrous storytelling ability and old-fashioned warmth, We Adore You, You Have No Name stamps down its foot and demands to be heard again and again.
8.0/10.0
PAUL QUINN