Mohammad Syfkhan - I Am Kurdish

Label: Nyahh Records - NYAHH013

Format: Vinyl

Released: 2024 (Ireland)

Genre: Folk

Style: Kurdish, Anatolian Psychedelic Music, Classical, Dabke, Electronic, Pop, Traditional

Condition: ex/new- sealed

5th place in The Quietus 100 'Albums of the Year' 2024.

Mohammad Syfkhan is a Kurdish/Syrian singer and bouzouki player. He began playing music in the 1980s, forming the Al-Rabie Band in the city of Raqqa, Syria, and playing a lively set of Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish and some Western songs at wedding parties, festivals & concerts. When the war broke out in 2011 Mohammad’s family suffered great tragedy and sought safety in Europe.

Mohammad celebrates music as ‘the language of the world’, he carries with him songs from across the Middle East, Mediterranean, Europe & North Africa and since arriving in Ireland has used this to forge connections with the local community. The trance back beats of his programmed drum machine pop & clap as if spilling out from any number of transistor radios in late night restaurants, crackling out into the close night time air of Damascus whilst his electrified melodic, driving bouzouki lines will delight any listener familiar with the pulsing deep heat club beat of Algerian Rai music and Anatolian folk-rock protest singer Selda Bağcan.

Mohammad’s story is in his songs. Songs of exile, homeland, the past & in his own words ‘sadness with hope’.

Listen to the album here