Sometimes, we get a new track to listen to and from the moment it starts, we just know that we’re listening to something really special. That’s what happened today when we heard Dominic Romano & Harley Eblen’s new single Red Moon Night.
Red Moon Night is a raw, emotional song written 48 hours after a really tough break up. You can hear the vulnerability in Romano’s gentle vocals.
Starting on just picked acoustic guitar, Red Moon Night has an almost celtic feel to it, we especially felt this when the backing vocals come in. These are absolutely beautiful. So well placed and just swelling around and complimenting the lead vocals. They had moments where they reminded us of Enya in her heyday.
The picked guitar combined with low strings works really well to make this an invitingly warm song to listen to. The vocals are multi-layered, as is the many and varied subtle instruments used.
This song rises and falls gently. There’s no huge crescendos but there doesn’t need to be, it moves perfectly between sections, all the time keeping you utterly enthralled.
There’s some real vocal moments from Romano in Red Moon Night. Particular attention needs to be drawn to a couple of absolutely blinding falsetto moments.
Lyrically, this says so much about the writers state of mind at the time of writing. This must have been great therapy to write. We were particularly drawn to the line “All I know is shredded as familiar is ripped away”. In just a few words you have a real insight into the thought process of the writer.
With very effective use of reverbs across the track and some very minimal percussion, we have to give huge kudos to Eblen’s cello performances. Cello is one of our most favourite instruments and to hear it played as well as this was a real treat. The solo was just sublime and we replayed it several times.
To us, this feels like a perfect song to be seeking out a TV sync deal with. It has everything in place to be perfect for background music in an emotional scene.
The production on Red Moon Night is superb. For our own personal taste, perhaps a little boost around 100Hz to add even more warmth and a fairly large shelf at the top end to add a little more air and highlight those beautiful breathy vocals. Overall the track feels just a little quiet compared to other commercial releases and could perhaps do with a 3-5dB gain on the overall master.
Nothing prepared us for the warmth and depth of emotional and skilled performance we heard today from Dominic Romano & Harley Eblen and we’re honestly itching to hear more from these talented US artists.