The best known lute player of the Western world states Quietus  magazine about Jozef van Wissem. This unusual and introverted  self-taught artist started off his career in Groningen basements, moved  to New York, then to Prague and finally settled in Rotterdam to dedicate  his life to his beloved instrument. Previously playing guitar in  new-wave and experiemntal bands, Wissem broke up with rock and roll in  1993, sold everything he had and moved to the United States. For years,  he didnt give a sign to the external world, but practised with his  special, giant-sized two-neck lute day and night instead.

I  spent my first years in New York like a monk states Wissem about his  early US time. Later on, he opened up and participated in various music  projects. His most famous collaborator is not a musician though: he met  Jim Jarmusch in the mid-00s, and became close friends with the  director. The duo even released a co-produced album in 2019 with the  remakes of Wissems early work. The peak of their collaboration though  was indoubtedly the 2013 movie Only Lovers Left Alive, with a soundtrack  written by Wissem that even led him to receive an award in Cannes. This  dark, melancholic and unique film music will be presented at the  Budapest concert serving as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the  local fans, as the soundtrack is rarely played during Josef Wissems  late shows.