Tamino releases his much-anticipated debut album, ‘Amir’, via Communion Records / Caroline Australia. To coincide with the announcement, Tamino has also shared a new taste from the album with ‘Persephone’. Of Belgian, Egyptian and Lebanese heritage, the 21-year-old musician has written and shaped an album of startling, visceral, sit-up-and-listen power. Four of the tracks that feature on his debut EP, Habibi, find a home on Amir too including ‘Indigo Night’ featuring Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood on bass. It’s an album of a variety of different shapes and textures, delivered in a soulful and sultry croon by a young musician with a striking, extraordinary talent. ‘Tummy‘ slinks brightly, the ying to ‘Verses’ folky yang. Whilst on other tracks like ‘Each Time‘, ‘Intervals‘ and ‘So It Goes‘ the Arabic influences shine through as melodies lilt over the quarter notes rarely touched in Western music. Also joining Tamino across Amir is a collective of Arabic musicians based in Brussels called “Nagham Zikrayat”. The Firka (orchestra) is predominantly made up of professional musicians (these players were reasonably well known in their home countries) from the Middle East, most of which have refugee status having predominantly fled from Iraq and Syria.
