Omar Souleyman
More personal than all his albums to date, with his second studio effort – Bahdeni Nami – Omar Souleyman returns to a collaboration with his favourite but not only poet, Ahmad Alsamer, who penned his pre-west hits Kaset Hanzel, Khattaba, and Shift –al Mani. Recorded closer to home, in Istanbul, with poet in residence and heard throughout with claps and wails of encouragement, it features saz fireworks and support from Khaled Youssef. Keyboards by Rizan Said improvise devotedly and with skill to every tune and turn of Omar Souleyman’s choice. His lyrics declare eternal love, console one’s aching heart, decide to let her go, and ask her to sleep in his arms forever – in 4 fast dance numbers, an introduction mawal and an elaborate araby style ballad.
After his first studio album – Wenu Wenu – produced by FourTet, Omar Souleyman opens it up here to a number of hard-core musician fans, offering their own takes on Omar’s optimal sound. He is humbled and finds himself fortunate that all of them are inspired by his music and want to be close to it.
Kieran Hebden returns to produce – Bahdeni Nami, Modeselktor appropriately luck out with 2 fastest dance numbers, Legowelt offers a remix for the title track and Cole Alexander of the Black Lips treats one of the heart wounding ballads.
Omar Souleyman continues tirelessly to bring his wild dance party to all corners of the world and prides himself very much on having sung at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert recently. From Syria in the Hasake region, Omar earned his reputation singing and leading years of weddings, birthdays, Christenings, corporate parties and the like, answering to invites from all peoples living in the region – be it Muslims, Christians, Kurds, Iraqis, Syriacs, Assyrians. His voice and style stood out as he adopted his songs and lyrics to make everyone equally happy. Those parties yielded hundreds of cassette tapes at first offered as gifts and later distributed throughout the region and other Arab countries. Despite world’s insistence to associate him with his home country’s unending war, Omar gives back nothing but Love.