Irish songwriter Mahuna, now based in Berlin, releases his poignant new single, “Far-Off Summer’s Night,” on September 12th, taken from his acclaimed debut album Forever Is Mine. Known for his lyrical intimacy and timeless soundscapes, Mahuna has already earned praise for creating touching odes to memory with folksy storytelling. This track stands as one of his most moving pieces yet, as an elegy to his late father that drifts between dream and memory. Recorded live to capture its immediacy, the song holds an intimacy that could vanish if you exhaled too hard.
It begins with gentle, lulling melodies, like ripples across a quiet stream at dusk, before Mahuna’s deep voice enters with a softness that belies its weight. He comes steady but heavy with remembrance as he opens the song with the lines, “Just a shadow it would seem / Walking with you to the stream,” giving a setting to the entire piece. It’s an image of closeness haunted by absence. Nature is everywhere in the song, from stars as “the only light” to the late-hour refrain that circles back like an echo, grounding the listener in the twilight of both day and life.
As the song builds, a female voice slips beneath his in the later lines, adding a second layer like a memory’s faint double exposure. Her softness and soulfulness make his words feel less solitary, as though grief itself finds brief company. Meanwhile, his lyricism embodies not only the pull of home but also the inevitability of endings.
Altogether, “Far-Off Summer’s Night” lingers like a fleeting, fragile dream, filled with a beauty that hurts to remember. Listen to it on Spotify.
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Review by: Naomi Joan