The debut record of a gifted young musician is getting a major record release, three years after his death.

Szymon Borzestowski began recording the album when he was 18, but the project was put on hold because of his mental health.

He killed himself in 2012 at the age of 23.

His music was released publicly on Friday, having already received rave reviews, including five stars from Rolling Stone magazine.

Mark Holland from EMI remembers receiving an unsolicited demo in 2008 from Szymon's father.

"He actually sent it through to EMI and he sent it through with not much information besides just the name Szymon and a phone number," Mr Holland said.

"I kind of listened through the album and it was just incredible music and we just had no idea who or what Szymon was.

"I didn't know if it was someone rehashing their demos from the 70s as like a folk artist or if it was a brand new artist."

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Szymon Borzestowski was 18 years old at the time and travelling in Europe, having just finished high school in Newcastle.

EMI tracked him down and they started working on an album.

"He was just such an amazing musician, like you could tell there was this touch of genius just about it," Mr Holland said.

"I know he got like 99 per cent in music in high school — he played every single instrument on this album as well — so he mainly played saxophone but he was playing clarinet, flute, guitars, pianos, bass, drums on all of this album, across the whole thing."

In 2010, Szymon put production on hold because of his deteriorating mental health.

With the blessing of the Borzestowski family, Mr Holland has worked for years since then, mixing the 12 tracks that make up the album Tigersapp.

He said they tried as hard as they could to reflect Szymon's vision.

"It was a long process and it's taken quite a few years just to make sure that we're doing it as authentically as we could," he said.

"We've been working really alongside with the family step by step in terms of getting artwork together and making sure that the mixes are as true to what Szymon left the music as well.

"We made sure that everything was as close to his references mixes as possible."

Szymon's elder brother Kubush Borzestowski is satisfied that the finished product is faithful to the initial recording.

"It was difficult at times but I think we got there and we're really really happy with the result," he said.

While the album has been enthusiastically received by the music press, Kubush is just enjoying the opportunity to talk about his brother again.

"It's been amazing to be reading things about him and it's one of those things when someone passes away you still want to talk about them, and being able to read about them and people bringing that up is such a special thing for us so it's incredible."

He said he hopes that listeners hear the light as well as the dark in his brother's songs.

"Obviously there's a tragedy, there's a story behind the music and the circumstances, but we hope people don't focus on that when they think about the music, that they try to see the beauty in it because that's what we've done as a family and it's been a real encouragement for us."

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