Shkoon has released on labels ranging from Acker Records to Underyourskin Records.
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…
Hi Shkoon and a very warm welcome to Flow Music. How are you both doing?
Doing well, thanks very much for having us.
Where in the world are you right now?
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.
How would you best describe your sound / artistic vision?
We never had a real vision for our sound. But as we consider ourselves as political beings, we see it as our goal to connect humans from all places and backgrounds with each other and try to build bridges between each other.
Congratulations on your huge new remix of Ragheb Alama’s 1986 smash hit Ya Rayt on WTR. Can you talk to us about the concept behind the release and why you decided to take on such a huge Arabic Pop record?
As you can see in our past releases, we love to rework old traditional Arabic songs and poems in our music. That’s why it was pretty obvious for us to choose one of Ragheb Alamas classic hits. Ameen and our generation in the Arab region grew up with the song Ya Rayt and we all connect certain memories with it.
How did the project come about?
We initially got contacted by Ragheb Alama’s team asking if we could imagine remixing one of his songs and of course we loved that idea from the start.
You’ve been instrumental in building bridges between traditional Middle Eastern music and modern club culture. Is this something you’ve done intentionally? If so, why?
A few weeks after we got to know each other some friends were asking Thorben if he could play some music at a charity rave to collect funding for people who got in trouble with the law after they were helping refugees to enter the country. The day before the party we got the idea to do something together, so we started preparing and jamming some beats. We had a lot of fun that night, and here we are today.
We’ve seen a proliferation in electronic music culture in the Middle East over the past few years, with huge-scale events like MDLBEAST drawing some of the biggest names in the industry. Do you think the region is undergoing a cultural transformation?
I think we can’t lump the whole middle east together that easily. It’s a very diverse region. There are countries and places where electronic music culture exists publicly for decades already. But of course, it’s worth taking a look at Saudi Arabia, one of the biggest players in the region. What happens there is a very big step. I think it’s too early to call it a cultural transformation. Let’s see what the future is gonna bring. But people were waiting for this.
In your opinion, what are some of the biggest challenges faced in bringing electronic music to wider Middle Eastern audiences?
I think there is none. It’s happening already and the music itself is gonna do its part.
Following this release, what’s next for Shkoon?
Well, we are super excited to start touring again and really hope for the best that festivals this summer are gonna happen more freely again. Besides that, we are gonna release a live album at the beginning of summer this year.
You can pick up a copy of ‘Ragheb Alama – Ya Rayt (Shkoon Remix)’ from HERE
