Tamino - Amir

Tamino is his first name, coming from...  The Magic Flute by Mozart! And Amir is his middle name. And his first album all the same.

Gifted with a voice to die for – softness and mellowness in middle register ("Verses"), chills and fascination in high-pitches ("Habibi" reaches high F!!), sensuality and bewitchment in low-pitches ("Persephone") – this young man was blessed by the gods.
Always seeking leaps, the observers soon compared him to a famous Californian who passed away too early. As for him, Tamino is European (and half Egyptian). If he has the – undeniable – vocal qualities of the author of Grace, he doesn’t have his defects (too desultory, not enough structured). His tunes stroke the ear while knowing how to stay in head. Casually, his melodies are handsomely polished, using melismas sometimes ("Ha-bi-i-i-i-i-i-i-bi-i"), and enabling generally pared-down arrangements.
No razzmatazz with him, nothing but the songs in their pure beauty. A guitar, a piano. Some Oriental strings in half the tracks (note "Sun May Shine", "Each Time", "Intervals"). Drums are often discreet, or even absent ("Habibi", "Persephone").

Drawing on these assets that would make lots of singers drool with envy, including much more experimented ones, the gloomy ephebe encounters success wherever he goes. I could observe this phenomenon for myself live, only a few hours after having interviewed a melancholy-accepting, kind and shy slender post-teenager: him.

That’s an understatement that I awaited this debut album. And that it keeps all its promises.

The whole thing is beautiful and rippling. The most spirited track, "w.o.t.h." (for "Will of This Heart"), is a kind of mystic round dance. It would be perfect as a movie soundtrack. It even could explode more, which would have made a real good rock track. It was probably difficult to give birth to it (it went through all sorts of arrangements); it is unquestionably one of the high points of the album.
Let’s also notice "Tummy" (Tummyno!?) for the contrast between verses and chorus, for some likeness to Radiohead, and for its Pharaonic video directed by his brother Ramy. (They’re all talented in this family or what?)

His lyrics, all in English except one Arabic word ("Habibi" = "baby"), are grouped into two categories: the ones using an implicit poetry in which all people will recognize themselves, and the ones telling stories.
Like this "Cigar" inspired to him by a painting by Van Gogh showing a smoking skeleton. And a fitting video. (His brother again.)
Like the unmissable "Indigo Night", the story of a traveler’s son suddenly encircled by all town girls, who teach him to be more alive than ever.

Yet Greek tragedy isn’t far either, especially thanks to his deep voice reminding me of Tanita Tikaram. (Hey, why do I think of her all of a sudden?) Or Leonard Cohen, whose style is closer.
Just as "Persephone", with its 8-quaver arpeggio, of which the accents on the 4th and 7th create a pendulum which describes well Persephone’s instability between the world of gods and the underworld, in mythology. This song contains as much enchanting poison as Chris Isaak’s famous "Wicked Game". Until the double meaning of the final sentence, “I am your fall”, meaning “I am your autumn” (Persephone must return to the underworld each autumn) but also “I am your ruin”.

In the poisonous kind too, I can’t forget to steer you toward this ginormous Arctic Monkeys cover, although it doesn’t appear on the album.

If the sirens had a male equivalent, it would be Tamino. You can be certain of that.

In short, remember this name. I bet a generation of little Taminoes shall be born soon.