Oztix | News | This One Time, On Bandcamp: Mariam Sawires

Mariam Sawires — sydney, nsw (Expatriate)

It's pretty rare that an artist possesses the kind of immediate charm and intrigue that will nab them a featured spot in these paragraphs on the basis of one tune alone, but such is the supremely polished and sensual soul of Australian-bred songstress Mariam Sawires and her velvet-smooth cut Wow.

Taken from her newly released EP, Ahnuma, Wow boasts an air of casual cool that floats effortlessly atop its chilled beats and minimalist instrumentation, Sawires' acrobatic, powerful vocals are as sweet as they are strong as she opines, 'I'm sick of being tied to you' in the song's eased but emotive chorus.

Now based in Europe, Sawires' wide-ranging experiences — born into "a worldly, nomadic family of musicians", raised in Australia, now living internationally — are infused through her music, permeated as it is by a breadth of influences, including an evident penchant for jazz, R&B and neo-soul.

She was turned on to music at an early age — "inspired by the sweet lyrical high-pitched melodies of traditional Arabic songs, the rhythms created from the clay Darbuka" her father used to play — and has taken that education and run with it in the most impressive kind of way.

Taking its name from "the creative being that lives through me and continually journeys life in an adventurous, intuitive, spontaneous way", Ahnuma was only released yesterday, and even just from Wow — the only track available to hear at the time this was written, sorry — it's clear to see that there's an accessible, appealing earnestness to Sawires' compositions, an obvious byproduct of her self-professed creative honesty.

"My way of being an artist is by being honest with the sounds and imagery I sense, hear, feel, reflect and try to re-create," she says of the five-track EP.

"My life has allowed me to experience many different cultures, countries, traditions and customs, ideas, beliefs, ways of thinking, so I want to be open and just share one unique perspective — one that has observed and appreciates many, and of course hopes to increase truth, love and light in this world."

Give Wow a spin below, and head to her Bandcamp page to hear the rest of the EP. No word at the moment if she has any plans to return to Australia to play some shows in the near future, but you can bet we'll let you know if that changes any time soon.