Jozef Van Wissem retools lute as electric

The news here is not just that Jozef Van Wissem has a new record out. It’s that he’s using that release to make a bigger argument about the lute itself. This Is My Blood came out on May 1 on Incunabulum, and the pitch around it is very clear — this is not museum music, and Van Wissem does not want the lute treated like a fragile historical artifact. He wants it amplified, pushed through modern performance setups, and heard with the physical force people expect from rock instruments. (jozefvanwissem.com) ### What actually came out? This Is My Blood is Van Wissem’s latest solo album, listed on his official site and Bandcamp and released through his Incunabulum label. The record is framed by two slide-lute pieces first improvised for Màquina, a film by Joaquim Pujol shot in the Colorado desert, which already tells you where his head is at — less courtly chamber recital, more scorched cinematic atmosphere. (jozefvanwissem.com) ### Why is the lute part the real story? Because Van Wissem is treating the instrument itself as the headline. In a recent interview run by Guitar Player, built from a new Guardian conversation, he says he wants to make the lute “the new electric guitar,” using a pickup and a bottleneck slide. That is not a small tweak. Basically, he is taking an instrument most people file under(jozefvanwissem.com)g it into the logic of volume, sustain, texture, and stage impact. (guitarplayer.com) ### What does “electric” mean here? Not that he has turned the lute into a solid-body guitar. The point is amplification and attack. Van Wissem has been performing with modified i(guitarplayer.com)acy becomes something closer to drone, distortion, and repetition. (guitarplayer.com) ### Why does the slide matter so much? The bottleneck slide is the giveaway. A slide turns plucked notes into smeared, singing lines and lets the lute behave less like a precision(guitarplayer.com)’s new album leans into exactly that mood. (guitarplayer.com) ### Is this a one-off stunt? Not really. Van Wissem has spent years dragging the lute into experimental spaces, and even his Bandcamp bio frames him as someone pushing the instrum(guitarplayer.com) minimalism. This album looks less like a pivot than a sharpened statement. (jozefvanwissem.bandcamp.com) ### Who resists this? Classical purists, sometimes immediately. Van Wissem says the first people to leave when he plays this way are often the classical listeners, while experimental audiences respond well. That split matters because it shows the argument is aesthetic, not technical. He is not trying to win a debate about historical correctness. He is trying to change what the lute is for. (guitarplayer.com) ### Why does this land now? Because the album gives him a fresh platform, and the surrounding coverage finally names the mission in plain language. This Is My Blood is the release vehicle, but the larger play is cultural repositioning — taking an instrument associated with the past and insisting it belongs in present-tense live music. That is a niche story, sure, but it is a real one. (jozefvanwissem.com) ### Bottom line Van Wissem is not just promoting a record. He is making a case that the lute can function like a modern electric instrument — loud, strange, amplified, and a little confrontational. If that idea sticks, even at the margins, it changes the instrument from a historical curiosity into a live-wire sound source again. (guitarplayer.com)leave-are-the-classical-people-they-cant-stand-it-jozef-van-wissem-wants-to-make-the-lute-the-new-electric-guitar-with-a-pickup-and-a-bottleneck-slide))