Ahead of his forthcoming album, Every Dawn's a Mountain, Belgian-Egyptian singer-songwriter Tamino has shared "Sanctuary", a duet with none other than Mitski.

It's a tender and earthly folk tune that draws the listener in close, with Tamino and Mitski's voices coalescing gorgeously in the third verse. In the final minute, the song deftly pulls the rug from under you, as if witnessing an ocean floor crumbling from below into an endless ravine.

Check "Sanctuary out below:

Tamino on "Sanctuary", and how the collaboration with Mitski materialised exactly.

Two weeks before our scheduled studio session, I had doubts about whether the current song was suitable enough for a duet. I teamed up with my friend Alessandro Buccellati (SZA, Arlo Parks) at my place in New York City, where, in the wake of my doubts, we wrote the music of ‘Sanctuary’ in a few hours. The next morning I wrote the lyrics, recorded a small demo, and sent it to Mitski, who loved it and, like me, preferred it to the other song. I asked her if she thought changes in the lyrics were necessary, but she liked it as it was. Two weeks later she came to the studio, where she wrote beautiful harmonies and recorded her part in half a day. 

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. On this album, ‘Sanctuary’ is the only track fully birthed from this working dynamic. 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.

"Sanctuary" is the third preview of Every Dawn's a Mountain, after Tamino released singles "Babylon" and "Dissolve" earlier. Though primarily written in Tamino's current base of New York, the recordings were scattered between a New Orleans church, a Brussels studio, and at various hotel rooms while on tour.

Preorder Every Dawn's a Mountain here.

The album will be out March 21 via erēmia/Communion Records.

This March, Tamino will preview Every Dawn's a Mountain with a bunch of intimate shows at theaters, churches, and other historic venues across Europe and the UK. On March 27th, he takes the record on tour across North America.

Check out the full list of dates below:

03/06 Rome, Italy @ Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone
03/07 Berlin, Germany @ Colosseum
03/10 Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Theatre Royal Carré
03/11 Paris, France @ Salle Pleyel
03/13 London, UK @ Hackney Church
03/15 Brussels, Belgium @ Bozar
03/27 San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park
03/28 Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco
03/29 San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
03/31 Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
04/01 Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre
04/04 St Paul, MN @ Fitzgerald Theater
04/05 Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
04/06 Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
04/08 Toronto, ON @ The Concert Hall
04/09 Montreal, QC @ MTELUS
04/11 Quebec City, QC @ Grizzly Fuzz
04/12 Boston, MA @ Royale
04/13 Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
04/16 Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
04/17 Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre

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