Ma Waraa Al-Shaabi

Rizan Said's Ma Waraa Al-Shaabi - "Beyond Shaabi" - is the new album on Kou Records by the Kurdish-Syrian keyboard virtuoso from Ras Al Ain in the Jazeera region of northeastern Syria, and the primary musical architect behind Omar Souleyman.

Rizan Said is a musical ambassador from a disappeared Syria. The Jazeera - a borderland of Kurdish, Arab, Syriac and Armenian communities - was alive with a distinctive sonic tradition: hand drums and reed flutes, days-long weddings, and dabke that long predated electro, disco or orientalism.

His third solo album, following King of Keyboard (Annihaya, 2015) and Saz U Dilan (Akuphone, 2019), was recorded at Sigur Ros's Sundlaugin Studio in Iceland and produced by Randall Dunn, with co-production by Mark Gergis. It pushes Syrian and Kurdish dabke into uncharted sonic territory across seven pieces.