Omar Souleyman has been a legend in Syria since the 90s, where he has released more than 500 studio and live cassette albums. After two releases in the US on Sublime Frequencies, the western media is drawing a warm response to the native Syrian.
Drawing from a plethora of influences including Arabic mawal vocalization, Syrian Dabke (regional dance/party music) to Kurdish and Turkish styles, he sings over synths, electronics, and drum machines to set the tempo at dance-house speed. He recently teamed up with Bjork, and the two will release a collaboration on limited 12'', CD and digital download later this year. We'll go out on a limb and assume the Icelandic crooner, who jammed dance music from all over the world last time we caught her DJ set, reached out to the Syrian legend, and not the other way around.
In June he will be coming to the US to play Chaos in Tejas (of all places) and Bonnaroo (and hopefully a layover set at Kennedy airport?).
