"People came together for the Oriental New Year, and we had a special evening planned with Afghan music, dancing, a fashion show and a Kyrgyz film," says Janyl Jusubjan, a Kyrgyzstan native who plays the komuz, a three-stringed lute. "After that, the Czechs became curious about us. We were surprised at the amount of interest that we attracted with our music."

Billed as "nomadic, shamanic and traditional," the music reflects the group's desire to stay in touch with homeland cultures and traditions. "The band is like a melting pot of religions and cultures; it is about diversity," says Jusubjan. Other RFE/RL members hail from Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Turkey.

So far, local interest in the ensemble seems to come mostly from university students. "The audience in the Czech Republic isn't a mainstream audience," acknowledges MOFFOM Programming Director Keith Jones. His own interest in Central Asian culture was sparked by a film he saw at the festival last year, a documentary by Simon Broughton called Breaking the Silence: Music in Afghanistan. "It opened up a window into a world I knew very little about," he says.

Beyond that one film, Jones noticed a general interest in Asian affairs among festival audiences. "It was interesting to see the massive interest in these cultures," he says. "Tickets for movies that came from the Islamic world were sold out."

This, he believes, reflects people's desire to learn more about the Islamic world through Muslim eyes rather than from Western media.

Jones decided to invite the group to the MOFFOM festival as a way to "help people understand and become more acquainted with Central Asia." He had previously worked with the ensemble for its first performance at Roxy NoD in February.

"Around 120 people came to the show, even though the capacity of the room is only 100," Jones says. "The audience didn't care — they sat on the floor and stood against the wall. There was a huge interest."

That stems not only from cultural interests but from some common denominators in the music, he believes. "I think the reason people in Europe can relate to this kind of music is because it can be quite similar to European music; the melodies and tonality are similar, and there is a certain familiarity in it," he says, adding, "And yet it is still exotic and unusual."