OMAR SOULEYMAN - NGA SIRIA ME 'FAST DABKE'

Nje legjende? Nje gjeni?

Filloi te kendonte vone, kur ishte ne te tridhjetat, por dasem pas dasme u be nder me te famshit fale nje  tastiere-mixer. Zona (jo e luftes!) ishte ajo ndermjet Turqise dhe Irakut, Jazeera; nje lloj toke e askujt, 12-ore me autobus per te shkuar ne Damask. Ketu te vetmit turiste jane ca arkeologe dhe puna e vetme qe mund te gjesh eshte ne agrikulture...

Omar Souleyman. Nje personazh mitik (me callmen/keffiyeh tipike mbi koke e syzet e detyrueshme!), jo vetem ne boten arabe e ne Lindje e Mesme. Po, sepse kohet e fundit ne web gjehet nje remix unik i tij me Bjork ('Crystalline') dhe kanadezi Caribou e fton regullisht per hapjen e seksioneve te tij elektronike dhe ne Berlin ka marre pjese disa here ne festivale elektrobeat. Adhurohet nga San Francisko e deri ne Frankfurt.

E te mendosh se nuk ka te beje shume me muziken syrian-pop te Sirise (jo ate tradicionale apo elite, te pakten). Eshte e shpejte ('Weli Weli'), mbani mend kete! Mjaft e shpejte, ritmika te kercyeshme, trupi pergjigjet gati ne gjendje vibracionesh trance, free-style per te rinjte perendimore... Punk i eger nga vendlindja!

E megjthate, te shoqeruarit e muzikes me mikrofon direkt nga Mr. Omar (kaseta prej dylekesh, cilesi low-cost), perjetesisht live, i jep nje ndjesi mjaft origjinale albumeve dhe show-eve te tij neper sheshe e klube. Te kercesh (techno-naiv?) behet automatizem i pelqyeshem...

'Eshte edhe seksi', - ka thene njehere nje mikesha ime!

Nuk numerohen regjistrimet e tij, edhe pse, per arsye copyright, ne Lindjen e Mesme nuk ka rregulla qe respektohen. Por zor se gjen ndonje, i cili e degjon dhe nuk i vjen per te kercyer keto mid-oriental beats. [Sfidoj cilindo te rri ulur ne vend pasi degjon edhe per nje minute Omar-in!].
Ritme aq te kerkueshme e te rralla ne skenat e Perendimit!
Pa me kufijte, jemi te barabarte.
Dhe 'tjetri, i panjohuri' ekziston.


...//...
(...) Young dudes in football shirts, fat middle-aged men in suits and ties, prim traditional dance troupes in the threads of yesteryear, old men and women in jellabiyas and head-dresses, young girls in skin-tight jeans or multi-coloured robes, Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians and Egyptians, all dancing the dabke, in a line, holding hands, laughing, together...

FROM AN INTERVIEW:

What about your sound? It’s not really a sound you would file under Syrian pop music.
It’s a mix. But a mix which is pretty often heard in the eastern region of Syria. Added with Turkish, Lebanese and Iraq influences. Not European. We call it fast dabke.

I’ve heard of it, but…
Dabke is an expression of love for us in eastern Syria, also of happiness and sympathy with others. Music and dancing are the traditions from generations ago. In eastern Syria we are fast and the whole world likes fast dancing. But it differs in every area from Aleppo to Homs to Deir ez-Zour and every area has its own style and tempo...

JOANNA NEWSOM ('EMILY') - PURE SOUL SISTER MONOLOGUE

It's a vivid and beautiful painting that you can walk into; a magic window into another world that I'd be happy to get lost in, and never come back...

'Emily', a 12-minute ode to her younger sister. It seems to be about the almost sacred bond between the two sisters, and is filled with coded allusions to their childhood world.

You taught me the names of the stars overhead

That I wrote down in my ledger

Though all I knew of that rote universe

Were those Pleiades loosed in December...

Shared secrets and experiences are suggested but never spelt out. Heartbreak is alluded to, and the drift into lovesickness.

You came and laid a cold compress on the mess I'm in

Threw the window wide and cried, amen, amen, amen

I can't help but think of the Brontes here

as the child sisters gaze out their window at 'mountains kneeling, felten and grey...

In the course of this one song, the music and lyrics shift from reflective to intense to almost druggily drowsy. It is Newsom's way with words that really startles, the oddness and richness of her imagery, which is closer to the nature poetry and any musical contemporary...