Assi is the name of a river in Syria and means rebel, because it is the only river in the Levant flowing from south to north. The civil war in Syria leaves the river metaphorically standing for the story of millions of refugees. Once a lively and flowing part of the Syrian culture Assi today is the river, in which they had thrown the body of the famous Syrian singer Al Kashush after having cut his throat. He had committed the crime to sing for freedom in Syria. Also Salah Ammo is singing for freedom and peace in Syria – on Friday evening (May 22nd) he can be heard at the European Tolerance Talks in Fresach (Evangelical Church, 9 p.m.). Ammo is a musical nomad who combines with his Bouzouk lute the different cultures and traditions in Syria. He remembers the smells and the experiences of his childhood, and the melodies that ran through the streets of his birthplace Darbaasiyah on the Syrian-Turkish border. The sensuous sounds of Bouzouk (Syrian long-necked lute) are rooted in Syrian Kurdistan, and giving them notice the suffering of the tragedy and the pain of loss on. Salah Ammo has one vote with gifted plaintive melting and must now watch helplessly as a refugee in Austria, that it is not the freedom fighters against the Assad regime, but IS militias who use the vacuum of failing states Syria and Iraq and the killing and expelling reaching an even higher level of brutality. Salah Ammo comes from a Kurdish family and was born in 1978 in Darbasiyah, a city in northeastern Syria (Al Hassaka region on the border with Iraq and Turkey). In 2004 he graduated from the Academy of Music in Damascus and worked subsequently in different musical fields, as Bouzouk player, composer, singer and tutor at the music falkulty of Homs. In 2007 he founded the “Joussour Group for Music and Singing” and performed in Syria and many other Arab and European countries, including Egypt, Armenia and Great Britain.In 2009 he won with the group the “Award for Outstanding Concerts” in the city Vendezor (Armenia), before deciding to emigrate because of the civil war in his homeland. Salah’s compositions (since 2010) include Kurdish and Arabic songs, instrumental music and soundtracks for films and plays. Since 2013 he lives and works in Vienna and comes on stage in Fresach with Habib Samadi (percussion) and Mohammad Khodadadi (Nai & Kawala). http://salahammo.com
