An evening of electric Kurdish dance & Indian Classical Music.

Mohammad Syfkhan is a Kurdish/Syrian singer and bouzouki player. He began playing music in the 1980s, forming the Al-Rabie Band in the city of Raqqa, Syria, and playing a lively set of Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish and some Western songs at wedding parties, festivals & concerts. When the war broke out in 2011 Mohammad’s family suffered great tragedy and sought safety in Europe.

Durga Ramakrishnan is a traditional musician who performs in the Carnatic style of Indian classical music known for its complex melodies and rhythms and associated with South India.

Mohammad celebrates music as ‘the language of the world’, he carries with him songs from across the Middle East, Mediterranean, Europe & North Africa and since arriving in Ireland has used this to forge connections with the local community. The trance back beats of his programmed drum machine pop & clap as if spilling out from any number of transistor radios in late night restaurants, crackling out into the close night time air of Damascus whilst his electrified melodic, driving bouzouki lines will delight any audience familiar with the pulsing deep heat club beat of Algerian Rai music and Anatolian folk rock protest singer Selda Bağcan.


Mohammad’s album ‘I Am Kurdish’ came out on Nyahh Records and has attracted excited coverage from The Guardian, The Quietus & Songlines. A fortuitous first meeting between Nyahh label head Willie Stewart & Mohammad at a local community gathering in County Leitrim saw Mohammed plug 'directly into the mixer and just went for it, and of course everyone started dancing. There were kids originally from the Middle East going crazy. So I was like, 'Who is this guy? Where did he come from? Where does he live? What’s his story?'"


Mohammad’s story is in his songs. Songs of exile, his homeland, the past & in his own words ‘sadness with hope’.


In his thrilling repertoire of Kurdish, Arabic & Turkish traditional songs & originals that carry the mournful weight of personal experience with a defiant, resourceful uplift, Mohammad has found renewed charge in the meeting of the Irish underground and diasporic music scenes of Mohammad’s new home including a notable opening for Bristol favourites Lankum at the Cork Opera House.

Following a Bristol sell out last year it's an honour to welcome Mohammad's return to Bristol

From a young age, Durga learnt music from her grandmother, Smt C. N. Kalpakam, and performed in cultural programmes such as All India Radio & Chennai’s Doordharshan. Durga is a workshop leader, founder of the Ragavidhya Music School specialising in Carnatic vocal & instrumental performance, devotional songs, Bhajans & Tamil music.


Durga has performed across India, Libya & the UK. In Bristol, she is closely associated with Asian Arts Agency performances at St Georges & Arnolfini, so it is a real thrill to present Durga at the Jam Jar, continuing the Music at the World Junction Jam Jar classical series. The aims of this series are to promote broader understandings & access to different forms of classical music from around the world, through a programme that both showcases outstanding musicians and makes connections between their different traditions.


For Durga, the seven notes / tones (swaras) of Indian classical music hold an emotional depth which encourages the player & listener to transcend boundaries, opening out the imagination towards greater learning & experience.


Tonight’s concert will be a solo performance of Carnatic song & instrumental raga on the veena, a popular string instrument in Carnatic music dating back to the first millennium BC.

Entry requirements: no age restrictions — Read more — Read less