Mohammad Syfkhan + Goblin Band

Upset The Rhythm presents…

MOHAMMAD SYFKHAN
GOBLIN BAND
Thursday 23 May
St Pancras Old Church, Pancras Road, King's Cross, NW1 1UL
7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/y06425199b5b

MOHAMMAD SYFKHAN is an Irish based Kurdish/Syrian singer and Bouzouki player. Mohammad’s own brand of ecstatic music takes elements from Middle Eastern and North African music to create an atmosphere of joy, love and happiness. Since arriving in Ireland, Mohammad has used the language of music to integrate into the local community by playing at private parties and concerts. He has been playing music since the 1980’s, while living in the city of Raqqa, Syria  where he began working as a professional singer and started his own band, The Al-Rabie Band which played concerts, parties, weddings and festivals all over Syria. His debut album ‘I Am Kurdish’ came out on Nyahh Records in February.
https://nyahhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mohammad-syfkhan-i-am-kurdish 

“Syfkhan takes his domestic influences and fuses them with music from beyond those regions, from North African folk rhythms to Turkish psychedelia. It’s a glorious alembic not bound by borders, where Mohammad himself brings a cultivated exuberance to his playing that belies his vintage.” The Quietus

“I Am Kurdish includes luscious covers of 1970s Turkish hit Leylim Ley, Baligh Hamdim’s A Thousand and One Nights and Kurdish songwriter Mihemed Elî Şakir’s gorgeous Put a Coffee in a Glass. The title track, an original with Syfkhan’s deep, husky voice in full flow, is also a highlight.” The Guardian

GOBLIN BAND formed organically from intimate sessions of the same name ran out of the HobGoblin Music, a folk music instrument shop in Central London, and organised by a group of queer folk obsessive friends and shop employees. These sessions have given rise to a six- piece band which, though firmly rooted in the traditional music of the British Isles, draws widely on medieval and early music, as well as the folk musical traditions from abroad. The sound concocted employs all manner of strings, squeezeboxes, hurdy gurdy, flutes, horns, bells and whistles. The Goblins interpret folk song in relation to the political upheavals of past and present and strive to make a space for new audiences to experience traditional music in a manner which is both riotously joyful and deeply sincere.
https://linktr.ee/goblin.band