Artist Profile: Shkoon

In 2015, a Hamburg kitchen became the site of a cultural collision. Ameen Khayer had recently completed a harrowing journey from Syria. He found himself living with Thorben Diekmann, who was a classically trained German pianist. One evening, Thorben’s partner began playing music. Ameen began to sing. What emerged was a vocal art known as mawwal; raw and entirely indifferent to the Western frameworks Thorben had spent his life mastering. Ameen's voice did not follow the tempered scales of the piano; instead, it found the microtonal quarter-tones that give Arabic music its distinctive emotional weight. This was the beginning of Shkoon. The name translates to "What?" in the dialect of Ameen’s home region of Deir ez-Zor on the Euphrates.

In order to truly understand Shkoon, you must also understand the geography of displacement. Ameen Khayer was a marine engineering student in Latakia when the Syrian revolution began. In 2014, he was detained for 34 days due to his political activism. Following his release, Ameen left Syria via Turkey, eventually reaching Germany as a political refugee. His time in the country was on the precarious "blue passport" status.

For years, Shkoon’s popularity skyrocketed on digital platforms with plentiful views of silhouette performances at landmarks like the Lebanese mountains. But despite online success, their touring schedule remained a delicate dance with EU bureaucracy. Shows were canceled and visas were denied, with Thorben often forced to perform alone.

Before the debut album dropped, Shkoon’s catalog moved in bite-sized output. Letters (2016) and Zehna (2018) established their improvisational style. But as they released singles like "33.9 Million Miles" (2020) and "Forgotten Stories" (2021), you could hear them moving toward a more structured, intentional sound.

In 2019, Shkoon cemented their place among the "Oriental Downtempo" elite with the release of their debut album, Rima. Its success led to performances in cities across the Middle East and North Africa, allowing the duo to bring their message back to the region that inspired it. Rima also clarified what Shkoon meant by blending traditions. The album folds in traditional material like “Ya Galbi,” a song from southern Syria, and “Ramallah,” a traditional Palestinian song, while the title track, "Rima”, features El Far3i, turning a children’s melody into a lullaby rewritten for adult reality.

In 2022, they released FIRAQ, a live album recorded during the pandemic. The title means "separation". It accurately captured their live performances, often featuring Ameen’s improvisational vocals over Thorben’s precise electronics.

The 2023 release of Masrahiya drew from the concept of the stage. Shkoon uses Masrahiya (translated as "The Play" or "Theater") to blur the lines between reality and fiction with tracks organized into chapters representing different facets of the human experience. Masrahiya is a work in chapters, moving through tragedy, politics, and irony, as if the modern Arab subject must learn to survive not only war and exile but also the exhausting theatre of being explained to others.

The duo has also become sought-after remixers. They recently reimagined Ragheb Alama’s 1986 pop classic "Ya Rayt." By stripping a pillar of Arab Pop down to minimalist electronica, they gave the song a second life.

In 2025, Shkoon launched its TRACES project, marked by the release of the forthcoming album single "Tired Way." The current TRACES world tour also includes many global outposts like the Great Pyramids of Giza. On Friday, February 6, the tour stops in Bucharest at Control Club. On stage, the setup has evolved into a conductable orchestra. Ameen is now a commanding presence. His voice is a bridge between the ancient qudud of Aleppo and the precise synthesizers of Berlin. The project TRACES, as the duo describes it, is a quiet uprising.

Despite their success, the political reality of their existence remains a factor. Ameen still speaks of the energy required to navigate the world as a refugee. Yet he remains optimistic and hopes to eventually perform in every city in Syria.

In a world of walls and wars, Ameen and Thorben continue to craft a refuge from sound. The journey that began in a Hamburg kitchen has become a reminder that music can transcend any passport limitations.