To get into Jozef Van Wissem’s world is to surrender to the inevitability – and timelessness – of a strange music created at its own pace, in a manner wholly of its creator’s making. He sets the listener into a private world, looking out through a glass darkly, such is the intense quality of the music. Brevity, simplicity, directness is the key. (Quietus) 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). He’s performed over 1200 solo lute concerts in churches and at concert venues around the world, including prestigious rock festivals like ATP and Primavera Sound, playing his all black, one-of-a- kind baroque lute custom build for him. The titles of his works often have a Christian-mystical appeal. Van Wissem moved to New York in 1993 and studied lute with Pat O’Brien. In 2013 he won the Cannes Soundtrack Award for best score at the Cannes Film Festival for “Only Lovers Left Alive”. Van Wissem has released four records with the film director Jim Jarmusch. He was commissioned to compose a sound piece for Hans Holbein’s painting ‘The Ambassadors” (1533) by the National Gallery. In December 2017 he was invited to perform the madrigal depicted in Caravaggio’s painting ‘the Lute Player ‘(1596) at the Hermitage museum. His new record, features this Renaissance work, entitled “ You Know That I Love You”. The record’s title ” We Adore You, You Have No Name” comes ” from the Secret of Secrets book, a description of worship of the nameless all-inclusive God.””

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Vorhees is the nom de guerre of New York City-based audio engineer and composer Dana Wachs. Vorhees embraces ambient form and pop structure in equal measure within her compositions. Live, her guitar tones are processed and extracted through a haze of vintage gear, conjuring dulcet riffs to aggressive, sneering fuzz over muted electronic beats. Her lyrics explore intimate observations with vocals alternating from alien to heartbreakingly human. Her methods have always relied on improvisation, whether in studio or on stage, forsaking formal education for a natural and visceral response to what inspires her.

Dana studied cello and electric bass from an early age. At nineteen, she joined the DC hardcore group Holy Rollers (Dischord Records) and dove deep into a world of touring and live sound. Audio engineering would define the following twenty years of her life while working at Greene Street Recording NYC and touring the world with St. Vincent, Grizzly Bear, Deerhunter and many others. In 2009, she debuted her solo compositions and has since continued to work on her own music, releasing her debut 7″ The Orchard (Peoples Club, 2012), composing for modern dance (including a 5 hour score for Guggenheim prize winning choreographer Morgan Thorson), film (“Sugar” by Kimi Howl Lee), and commissioned performances and recordings for fashion designer Rachel Comey. Live performances during this time included support for Cat Power, Matmos, and Dum Dum Girls, with invitations to perform at Basilica Soundscape 2013 and Iceland Airwaves 2014.

Vorhees debut EP, Black Horse Pike, was released in 2017 via Styles Upon Styles. Black Horse Pike represents an unintentionally chronological contemplation. Across a five-track suite, Vorhees explores memories of teenage meanderings in New Jersey’s suburban doldrums, the scars and artifacts of relationships with intimates and religion, and the impossible waking (un)reality of her insomniac tendencies throughout the world in ever changing hotel rooms and tour bus bunks.

Black Horse Pike was written, recorded and produced by Dana Wachs in her Brooklyn home between touring with Belle & Sebastian and Deerhunter. During this time, Dana participated in parts II and III of a performance art piece titled Rural Violence, directed by Brandon Stousy, with part II presented by Matthew Barney. In conjunction, she collaborated with George Clarke of Deafheaven, forming the new duo Wachs & Clarke, for the 20 minute accompanying music piece RVIII: Invocation. The artwork for Black Horse Pike features an illustration by Dana’s mother, Nancy Alter, and design by Tran Huynh.

During 2017 Vorhees supported Beth Orton on her Australian tour and made her UK live debut with an intimate London headline show and a performance at Cardiff’s Off Kilter event as part of SWN Festival, supporting Richard Dawson.

Photo Credits: Jelle Wagenaar / Mai Le