The brand new album from Belgian singer Tamino, Each Daybreak’s A Mountain, is a mysterious reflection on loss and alter after he settled in New York Metropolis.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Just a few years in the past, the singer Tamino was on the terrace of his residence in Antwerp, Belgium, surrounded by vegetation.
TAMINO: Sooner or later, I sat there, and I seemed round, they usually had all died. And there was this one explicit little willow tree that I actually beloved, and it had died, too. And, I imply, I suppose perhaps that picture was a bit of little bit of a spark.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WILLOW”)
TAMINO: (Singing) The willow is weak.
KELLY: A spark of a brand new track.
TAMINO: It is type of attention-grabbing to see a willow tree die, I suppose, ‘trigger they envelop themselves in a shadow after they’re alive. And it is solely after they die and all of the vines begin falling that the trunk sees the solar, and it is type of reborn.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WILLOW”)
TAMINO: (Singing) Cradled in silence, she is going to launch me.
KELLY: In these days, Tamino was considering quite a bit about endings and beginnings. He was about to depart Belgium, the place he was born and raised, to maneuver to New York Metropolis. He saved writing songs as he settled into his new residence, so after we talked the opposite day, I requested whether or not town modified his music.
TAMINO: Properly, it actually hasn’t develop into quicker, which (laughter) is sort of stunning, given the tempo of New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KELLY: What did emerge had been songs that Tamino has referred to as a metaphysical altar for what had been misplaced.
TAMINO: Forsaking so many issues – a spot, a relationship, a youthful self, perhaps even a perception system.
KELLY: We’re listening to you develop up a bit of bit in these songs.
TAMINO: Yeah, perhaps. I suppose I have been rising up in public for some time (laughter).
KELLY: Tamino is 28 now. He spent his complete 20s on stage, on the radio, in studios, singing uncooked and confessional songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DISSOLVE”)
TAMINO: (Singing) A line dissolves between every residence.
KELLY: On the middle of his present sound is the Arabic oud, an instrument he remembers from his early childhood, after his dad and mom break up up.
(SOUNDBITE OF TAMINO SONG, “RAVEN”)
TAMINO: My dad left behind an oud with a damaged neck. And I all the time thought it was a really stunning object, however you could not actually play it as a result of it was, you realize, all bruised. So, yeah, I all the time figured perhaps in the future I might be taught it and purchase myself one.
KELLY: Tamino’s grandfather was a well-known Egyptian singer. And Tamino has been skilled in Arabic kinds of music, however he is fast to level out that the way in which he performs the oud on these songs is much from conventional.
TAMINO: It is simply no matter I wished to specific, I suppose, or no matter got here out of me, nevertheless it’s not in step with any explicit custom.
KELLY: As a substitute, the oud is only one extra voice in a swirl of recent music that’s haunting and infrequently mysterious – music that’s out right now on Tamino’s new album referred to as “Each Daybreak’s A Mountain.”
(SOUNDBITE OF TAMINO SONG, “RAVEN”)
TAMINO: (Singing) Watch for me. Stray from the nightly shore. My solely.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content is probably not in its closing type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability might fluctuate. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.