Jozef van Wissem

Thu., May 31, 8 p.m., with Lone Wolf Recital Corps, Steve Parker, Amnesa Spentas, Pageant: Soloveev, 607 Bainbridge St.

by Shaun Brady

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Published: May 30, 2007

experimental

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The lute was long ago declared dead, but apparently someone forgot to check the pulse. Dutch composer/improviser Jozef van Wissem has rehabilitated the patient, both reinventing old repertoire and creating inventive new pieces for the Baroque and Renaissance lutes. Wissem isn't interested in transforming the instrument into another vehicle for string abuse; somber, meditative miniatures, his pieces take full advantage of the resonant drone that the lute emits. Neither is he an archivist; his interpretations of rediscovered compositions deviate wildly from purist historical reconstruction, then to Burroughs-style cut-ups or even to being played backward, dispensing with the happy ending at the outset and finding a much less resolved ending. He has collaborated with the likes of guitarists Tetuzi Akiyama and former Beefheart sideman Gary Lucas, but his solo CDs, often interspersed as they are with ambient recordings of airports taken on his travels, create a modern (and decidedly secular) cathedral space, appropriate for his out-of-time experiments.

Thu., May 31, 8 p.m., $5, with Lone Wolf Recital Corps, Steve Parker, Amnesa Spentas, Pageant: Soloveev, 607 Bainbridge St., www.bowerbird.org.

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