One of the most exciting and authentic outfits in the current electronica scape, German-Syrian live act Shkoon is changing the face of underground music in the Arab world. Building bridges between Middle Eastern tradition and modern club culture, the duo have served to unify numerous demographics through their richly eclectic productions and ethereal track selections. Now, reimagining one of the most widely celebrated Arab Pop hits of the past forty years – Ya Rayt (1986) by regional superstar Ragheb Alama – the duo navigates a new and progressive path for the region’s vibrant music community. We caught up with the pair in Hamburg, Germany to find out more.
WWD: Hello Ameen & Thorben, and welcome to When We Dip. Fantastic to have you chatting with us for the first time. How has 2022 been for you so far?
Hard to give a proper answer on how we are doing at the moment with all this mess going on in the world right now. We are both in Hamburg trying to cope with it while working on some new music in our studio right now.
WWD: Starting at the beginning, can you tell us how you got into electronic music?
That probably happened pretty late and the whole world of electronic music really opened to us the moment we started doing music together. I guess we didn’t have any idea.
WWD: How would you best describe your brand of electronic music for those who may not be familiar?
Combining two different worlds, arabic traditional music and folklore with electronic music, organic house, downtempo. You might be able to phrase it better than us!
WWD: Who or what were your biggest musical inspirations growing up?
For Ameen it was mainly Arabic folklore, lullabies and revolutionary music from poets like Sheikh Imam. For Thorben it was european classical music, being fascinated by the compositions of J.S.Bach from the beginning and later on by impressionists like Claude Debussy.
WWD: You’re about to release your new remix of Ragheb Alama’s Arab Pop vintage classic ‘Ya Rayt’. Can you give us an idea of what to expect?
The expectations might vary depending on if you know the original song or not. If you don’t know it you can expect a deep melancholic journey with a lot of arpeggiators answering each other. If you know you can expect a complete mood flip to the original song.
WWD: How did you connect with Ragheb for this release?
It was Ragheb who contacted us and asked us if we could imagine remixing one of his songs. And of course we couldn’t say no to such an opportunity. Choosing the song was harder, but as we are huge fans especially of his early work, we took the decision to work on Ya Rayt, a song everyone of our generation in the Arab region grew up with.
WWD: What do you guys like to do in your spare time when you’re not touring the world or making music?
Sleep. And see all our beloved ones that we miss seeing of course. The good part of covid lockdowns by the way. We found out that we have friends that we actually love to spend time with!
WWD: What’s your favourite part of being an artist?
It is the privilege of being free to express ourselves and to have the time and capacities for that.
WWD: And your least favourite?
The downside of this privilege is probably the fact that we never know what’s gonna happen next, what’s gonna happen tomorrow. Sometimes it’s hard to plan anything not music-related.
WWD: Do you have any other releases planned in the coming months? Can you give us a sneak peek?
We are actually gonna release a live album at the beginning of this summer. And there is tons of music waiting to be tested live in summer.
WWD: Any final words for our When We Dip readers?
Keep dipping!
Ragheb Alama – Ya Rayt (Shkoon Remix) is released on Friday, March 11 via MDLBEAST Records’ new imprint WTR. Listen HERE