Omar Souleyman
The present in which we live can sometimes be weird. Who would have thought that a wedding singer from the Syrian city of Ras al Ayn with more than 500 albums in his luggage would one day become a cult hero of the local club world?
However, there is an undeniable link between Acid House and the synthesizer-heavy version of the Levantine music genre Dabke, played by the 51-year-old Omar Souleyman. Played both with surging synths and rhythms, as well as exuberant stimuli that make the audience's hips move - no matter what geographic region they come from. So it's no surprise that electronics greats such as Four Tet (who produced the breakthrough album Wenu Wenu), Modeselektor and Gilles Peterson have already worked with Souleyman.
Omar Souleyman comes to Vienna this time with his already third LP "To Syria, With Love". Both musically and lyrically, he takes a different approach than on his previous records and focuses more on the keyboard and techno elements. In terms of content, he says farewell to political topics and rather shares his personal, emotional experiences with his Syrian homeland and its inhabitants.