— Tamino for Télérama, November 2022 (x)
(Original French text)
Tamino, a boy in the oud: “It was the first instrument I knew as a child”
The oud, a family affair for Tamino.
Anne Berthod
Posted on 17/11/22
The Belgian musician of Egyptian origin returns with an album that delicately mixes introspection, childhood sounds, and Khalil Gibran. Interview, on the occasion of his two concerts at the Trianon, in Paris.
What does "Sahar", the title of the album you have just presented, mean?
In Arabic, it means “just before dawn”: a sort of in-between, a parenthesis, a moment conducive to reflection, which corresponded to my state of mind when I composed the album. It was in 2020, at the start of the pandemic. I had just planned to take a break and I enjoyed this period of confinement in my apartment in Antwerp all the more. My record is the fruit of this solitary parenthesis.
Isn't “Sahar” also a love album?
This was already the case with the previous one. The difference is that on Amir I expressed my aspiration for love, whereas Sahar bears witness to my experience of love. Which is much better!
Who is "the first disciple" in the song you titled?
The First Disciple pays homage to Khalil Gibran, a Lebanese poet whom I idolized for a long time. When I read The Prophet, I imagined that its author was a deeply spiritual being, to the point of sanctifying him. Much later, I learned that the character was much more complex; I became aware of his flaws – his alcoholism, his behavior with those close to him… –, of his humanity, finally. The song talks about this experience that pushes us to look at life differently and about self-acceptance: you are your first disciple, because you don't need the recognition of others to love you. What you are looking for, you can find it within you.
“The audience gives me back the energy I give them, the emotional side outweighs everything else”
You play the piece on an oud. It's new?
On the album and on stage, I handle the piano, the guitar and also, for the first time, the oud. Until then, I only played it for myself. Two and a half years ago, I started taking lessons with the Syrian musician Tarek Alsayed. This refugee from Aleppo fled the war and was already playing the oud on my first album. It allowed me to improve my practice to the point that today I even use the oud to compose and write songs.
Is the oud inherited from your Egyptian family?
Along with the piano, it was the first instrument I knew as a child. It is also the only memory left to me by my father, an oud player. I was 3 years old when my parents separated. He left the house leaving his instrument, which was broken. Around 19, 20, I bought a new one and ended up getting into it.
What did your grandfather, the famous Egyptian singer Moharam Fouad, leave to you?
I was born in Antwerp in 1996 and he died when I was very young, so I have few memories of him. But when I was 15, during a vacation in Cairo at my grandfather's house, I found one of his guitars in the cellar: a magnificent instrument, with a resonator, which I immediately adopted. I had been studying classical piano since I was 11 and was just beginning to write my songs. This guitar, which I could take everywhere with me, never left me.
Did your grandfather's songs feed your oriental imagination?
My mother was Belgian, but she listened to a lot of Arabic music, especially my grandfather's albums released in the 1970s. Good Friday Eastern Sacred Songs by Fairuz, some standards by Farid El Atrache and Mohamed Abdelwahab, and also by Abdel Halim Hafez, who was my grandfather's great competitor.
You finally go on tour. Did you miss the stage?
Yes, and this despite my solitary and introverted character, which is both my greatest weakness and my greatest strength, since that's where my songs are born. As you can see, I take my time to answer, I search for my words. I'm not made, for example, for radio interviews, where everything has to go quickly. But on stage my shyness disappears because I share. The audience sends me back the energy I give them, the emotional side takes precedence over everything else.
Angèle, in duet with you on a title, will she join you on the Zenith stage?
It's still a bit early to tell, but Colin Greenwood, unfortunately on tour with Radiohead on previous dates, will be there. Radiohead is one of those bands from the 90s that had a big influence on my way of playing guitar and it's a great honor for me to share the stage with Colin. He had already done a feat on the Amir album and he is an integral part of the Sahar project. He taught me a lot.
To see
November 21 and 22. Trianon, 18th (sold out). March 24, 8 p.m., Zénith-Paris La Villette, 211, av. Jean-Jaurès, 19th , €39.50-45 .
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