SOUNDTRACK: TAMINO-Tiny Desk Concert #871 (July 26, 2020).
Tamino is a 22 year-old singer of Belgian, Egyptian and Lebanese descent.
I didn’t know anything about him. But the blurb mentions his voice. As soon as I read Jeff Buckley and I heard it in the middle part of the first song I knew it was right on.
His voice is powerful and can really soar. For “Habibi,” (a song about a sweetheart) it starts with just him and his guitar. He plays a simple, quiet, repeating guitar melody. After a few verses, he adds the low strings on his guitar. The song has been so devoid of bass up until now that it’s hard to imagine it coming from that guitar. Vik Hardy adds repeating piano lines that create a tension that continues throughout the song.
Tamino fills this song with yearning in his voice, much the way Buckley did. And the end of the song has him hitting some gorgeous ethereal high notes.
His use of that falsetto had some faces in the NPR audience gasping in astonishment.
The songs performed at the Tiny Desk by the 22-year-old singer come from both a 2018 EP titled Habibi and later that year an album titled Amir.
The second song, “Indigo Night” (about despair turned to joy) stars in a similar way–quietly with just a little guitar and Tamino’s amazing, deep vocals.
Colin Greenwood (yes, of Radiohead) plays bass on this song, adding some nice lines to the moody piece. There is definitely a Radiohead feel. The blurb lets us in on a bit of personal humor:
The Radiohead bassist shared a brief text exchange with his son, basically telling his hugely accomplished dad that playing the Tiny Desk was “the coolest thing he’d ever done!” That made us all smile.
Midway through the song, as Tamino’s voice wordlessly soars along with the guitar melody, it feels even more like a Radiohead song, except with a more impressive voice than Thom Yorke’s (sorry, Thom).
Tamino’s grandfather was Muharram Fouad, a well-known Egyptian singer known as “The Sound of the Nile.”
The final song, strangely called “Tummy” starts with Tamino’s almost plucked guitar style. He learned on his grandfather’s guitar. He gets such an interesting sound out of the instrument. Ruben Vanhoutte adds some simple drums to flesh out the sound.
It’s a truly impressive set and he has a truly impressive voice.
[READ: August 5, 2020] “Motherless Child”
Olive Kitteridge is an older woman with a grown son. The son is married with children of his own. They have been rather estranged for the last few years.
But Christopher was finally coming to visit his mother with his wife and children. But they were late. In fact, Olive had lunch set up for them, but Christopher had just called to say they were going to eat lunch on the road (it was two P.M.) and that they wouldn’t be there for a few more hours.
Olive had been taking things down in her house–it looked almost bare. Her husband had died three years ago and she was ready to move on. She just hadn’t told Christopher yet. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 