Spanish documentary filmmaker Michel Gasco, for whom music is perhaps an even more important vocation than his video work, met the legendary Afghan rabab player (the rabab is a small, lute-like multi-stringed plucked instrument) Ustad Rahim Khushnawaz in 2006, and it was love at first listen. Bisected by the Iranian-Afghan border, the Khorasan region is rich in ancient cultural treasures, with its traditional music among the most important ones. After Gasco began exploring the region, he discovered and recorded the work of Ustad Rahim’s son Nasim Khushnawaz, who, continuing in his father’s footsteps, is the top rabab player in the world today. Together with Afghan musicians living in exile in the northern Iranian city of Mashhed, the country’s second largest city, he established the duo Badieh together with the Iranian artist Mohammad Miraghazadeh in order to preserve the traditional music of Khorasan. The follow-up to their 2021 debut album arrived in late 2023, this time incorporating new member Ramin Ahmadi, among the finest tabla players in the world, as well as guest artists Nasim Khushnawaz, who fortunately is going on the world tour supporting the album launch with the others.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest