This time it's good news from Afghanistan: the musical tradition is live again! Master musicians and their students play traditional instruments in a joint concert with German jazz musicians. The group name is Safar (journey).

On Tuesday 27 August at 14.30 GMT (16.30 cet), RBB's Kulturradio will webcast a unique 90-minute live concert. This exclusive performance of traditional Afghan music by the Afghan-German music ensemble Safar will be transmitted as a live video stream. Three Berlin jazz musicians and five masters of traditional Afghan music have joined forces in this unusual project. Their intention is to promote the rarely-heard music of Afghanistan and to draw attention to the cultural richness of the country.

Under the Taliban regime (1996-2001), music in Afghanistan was forbidden. Musicians were persecuted, their instruments were destroyed, and many fled into exile. However, since 2001, a number of master musicians have returned to their native land, working with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) and the Aga Khan Music Initiative (AKMI). Their intention is to revive the rich traditions of Afghan music and pass them on to the next generation. With the support of these master musicians, today’s young  artists will play a key role in the continuity cycle of traditional music in Afghanistan.

At ANIM, teenagers practice on the rubab lute with its 15 shimmering sympathetic strings. They learn the dilruba harp, whose name translates as ‘the robber of the heart’. One of the last dilbruba masters in Afghanistan is Ustad Amruddin, a venerable artist of uncertain age. He is among the few master musicians from the pre-Taliban time who returned to Afghanistan. Ustad Amruddin is now part of the Safar ensemble.

In the summer of 2012, the Safar ensemble performed on tour in Germany, and now Safar continues its activity in Afghanistan’s Hindukush mountain chain. Safar will celebrate the richness and wealth of re-emerging cultural joy in this country, struggling for its future.

The Safar concert is a joint project of the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar (Academy of Music) ANIM and AKMI, with the aim of strengthening cultural understanding between Germany and Afghanistan. The concert on 27 August will be shared with an exclusive live-video-stream on the new Euroradio2see. The stream can be easily be embedded into any website of EBU members and associates.