Acclaimed Kurdish/Syrian musician Mohammad Syfkhan is coming to The Cube

Acclaimed Kurdish/Syrian musician Mohammad Syfkhan is coming to The Cube

Posted on: 30 Apr 2024

Next month, The Cube will host a wonderfully international evening of traditional and original music from the Middle East, North Africa, and Southern Africa.

 

Mohammad Syfkhan and support will play The Cube on Sunday 26 May 2024.

 

Joining Syfkhan for this Spring Bank Holiday special will be Said Anazoure, a singer and multi-instrumentalist from the Amazigh people of Ait Ourir in Morocco, and Omar Akbar, a Bristol-based Afghani harmonium, best known as a lead member of Bristol’s Dovetail Orchestra.

 

Tickets for the show can be found on The Cube website.

 

 

Mohammad Syfkhan is a Kurdish/Syrian singer and bouzouki player who began playing in the 80s, forming the Al-Rabie Band in Raqqa, Syria and playing Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish and Western songs at weddings, festivals, and concerts. However, war broke out in 2011 and Mohammad’s family suffered great tragedy and sought safety in Europe.

 

Celebrating music as ‘the language of the world’, Mohammad presents songs from across the Middle East, Mediterranean, Europe and North Africa and, since arriving in Ireland has used these disparate sounds to forge connections in the local community.

 

The trance backbeat of his programmed drum machine pops and claps as if spilling out of any number of transistor radios in late-night restaurants crackling out into the Damascus night air, all set to Syfkhan’s melodic, driving bouzouki lines.

 

 

Mohammad’s album I Am Kurdish was released on Nyahh Records earlier this year, attracting critical acclaim from the likes of The Guardian and The Quietus. His thrilling repertoire of Kurdish, Arabic and Turkish traditional songs and originals carries the mournful weight of personal experience with defiant uplift.

 

Also playing this exciting showcase is Said Anazoure, a singer and multi-instrumentalist from the Amazigh people of Ait Ourir in Morocco. He will be playing a ribab, an Amazigh one-stringed violin-style instrument, presenting a traditional repertoire of scorched instrumental roots music & Amazigh songs sung in his first language, Tashlhiyt.

 

He will be joined by Omar Akbar, playing a rare solo performance away from Dovetail Orchestra, a musical group for refugees and asylum-seeking people, where he plays a cherished leading role. Playing a warm selection of upbeat rhythms in the bar before and between performances will be Afunia Gebru.

 

 

Mohammad Syfkhan and support will play The Cube on Sunday 26 May 2024 with all money going to the artists and The Cube. Grab your tickets HERE.

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Article by:

Stanley Gray

Stan is a born and bred Bristolian, recently graduated from studying English Literature in Sheffield. His passions are music and literature and he spends the majority of his time in venues all over the city, immersing himself in Bristol’s alternative music scene. A lifelong Bristol City fan, Stan’s Saturdays are spent watching his team both home and away.