MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
A few years ago, the singer Tamino was on the terrace of his home in Antwerp, Belgium, surrounded by plants.
TAMINO: One day, I sat there, and I looked around, and they had all died. And there was this one particular little willow tree that I really loved, and it had died, too. And, I mean, I guess maybe that image was a little bit of a spark.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WILLOW")
TAMINO: (Singing) The willow is weak.
KELLY: A spark of a new song.
TAMINO: It's sort of interesting to see a willow tree die, I guess, 'cause they envelop themselves in a shadow when they're alive. And it's only when they die and all the vines start falling that the trunk sees the sun, and it's sort of reborn.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WILLOW")
TAMINO: (Singing) Cradled in silence, she will release me.
KELLY: In those days, Tamino was thinking a lot about endings and beginnings. He was about to leave Belgium, where he was born and raised, to move to New York City. He kept writing songs as he settled into his new home, so when we talked the other day, I asked whether the city changed his music.
TAMINO: Well, it certainly hasn't become faster, which (laughter) is kind of surprising, given the pace of New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KELLY: What did emerge were songs that Tamino has called a metaphysical altar for what had been lost.
TAMINO: Leaving behind so many things - a place, a relationship, a younger self, maybe even a belief system.
KELLY: We're hearing you grow up a little bit in these songs.
TAMINO: Yeah, maybe. I guess I've been growing up in public for a while (laughter).
KELLY: Tamino is 28 now. He spent his entire 20s on stage, on the radio, in studios, singing raw and confessional songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DISSOLVE")
TAMINO: (Singing) A line dissolves between each home.
KELLY: At the center of his current sound is the Arabic oud, an instrument he remembers from his early childhood, after his parents split up.
(SOUNDBITE OF TAMINO SONG, "RAVEN")
TAMINO: My dad left behind an oud with a broken neck. And I always thought it was a very beautiful object, but you couldn't really play it because it was, you know, all bruised. So, yeah, I always figured maybe one day I'd learn it and buy myself one.
KELLY: Tamino's grandfather was a famous Egyptian singer. And Tamino has been trained in Arabic styles of music, but he's quick to point out that the way he plays the oud on these songs is far from traditional.
TAMINO: It's just whatever I wanted to express, I guess, or whatever came out of me, but it's not in line with any particular tradition.
KELLY: Instead, the oud is just one more voice in a swirl of new music that is haunting and often mysterious - music that is out today on Tamino's new album called "Every Dawn's A Mountain."
(SOUNDBITE OF TAMINO SONG, "RAVEN")
TAMINO: (Singing) Wait for me. Stray from the nightly shore. My only. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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