Wafik Habib

Sahrat Attabat (Attaba Evening)

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Every rule has an exception, and every discography has a cassette like this that breaks the context and takes unexpected directions. The uniqueness of the cassette starts with the ambient sound of the keyboard, which appears in the background and seems as strange to Syrian shaabi as a rebab in an opera house. The dense, maximalist arrangement of dabke songs is absent here, replaced by shy and slow presence of the oud and ney. All of this makes room for Wafik Habib, who presents us with a long, leisurely ataba mawal that invites close listening rather than dancing. Wafik Habib left an impact on Syrian shaabi music that is difficult to compare to others. We can almost say that his emergence in the 1990s instigated an entirely new era of this music. With Habib, the keyboard transformed from being an accompanying instrument to a primary one. His collaborations with iconic keyboard player Talal Da'our opened the door to experimentation and mastery of this instrument, reaching remarkable harmony with Eastern rhythms. Habib played a major role in representing the Sahel region in Syrian shaabi music, paving the way for several successful singers from the region, such as Ali Al-Deek. Thanks to the success of his songs, Syrian shaabi singers began searching for their own hit songs, rather than just relying on traditional revivals. With Habib, shaabi songs moved from the stage to the studio and from weddings to music festivals.