Tamino and Mitski Duet on “Sanctuary”
His new album, Every Dawn’s A Mountain, is out March 21st via erēmia/Communion Records.
Photo courtesy of press
Belgian-Egyptian singer-songwriter Tamino’s third album, Every Dawn’s A Mountain, is out March 21st via erēmia/Communion Records, and if the singles he’s released so far give any indication of what to expect, it will be a gorgeous affair from start to finish. Today, he’s shared the record’s third single, a duet with Mitski titled “Sanctuary.” It’s a musical match made in heaven; the pairing of their voices sounds just as heavenly as you would expect.
A collaboration between the pair was a long time coming—the two have been fans of each other’s work for years, and Tamino opened for Mitski on a leg of her The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We Tour back in 2023. After some months, Tamino wrote and recorded a demo for Mitski to sing on, but it wasn’t until he teamed up with co-writer Alessandro Buccatelli (SZA, Arlo Parks) two weeks before his studio time with Mitski was scheduled that the current version of “Sanctuary” came to be. The ultimate result is a stunning synthesis of Tamino and Mitski’s respective talents—over swelling waves of golden-tinged acoustic strumming and a pulseline of stirring strings, their voices ascend to a breathtaking catharsis that could knock even the most coldhearted off their feet.
“I usually write in solitude and only let other people in much later in the process when the songs already have a form. Collaborating with Alessandro has been a revelation in the sense that for the first time I feel like songwriting as a duo results in songs that I feel are worth releasing,” Tamino says of the duet. “On this album, ‘Sanctuary’ is the only track fully birthed from this working dynamic.”
He continues, “It’s also the final addition to the record. These things, combined with the fact that the song features a second voice on what is otherwise a very personal record, make the track a bit of an outlier. Still, it feels like an essential track on this album. I won’t analyze it here, but suffice it to say that I can’t imagine this record without it. Apart from that, it’s also a pinch me moment every time I hear Mitski’s voice soaring over ‘Sanctuary,’ especially when I think back to my time in Amsterdam where it soared over many days.”
Listen to “Sanctuary” and see Tamino’s upcoming tour dates below.
Tamino’s Upcoming Tour Dates
3/6 – Rome, Italy @ Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone
3/7 – Berlin, Germany @ Colosseum
3/10 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Theatre Royal Carré
3/11 – Paris, France @ Salle Pleyel
3/13 – London, UK @ Hackney Church
3/15 – Brussels, Belgium @ Bozar
3/27 – San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park
3/28 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco
3/29 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
3/31 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
Check out Tamino’s Paste Session from 2019: