Reviewed by
From Nick Fenix’s opening smooth and eloquent piano and Blue Unicorn’s sweet guitar melodic lines (both are played all the way through-Nick Fenix’s lead vocal and piano along with the guitar and backing harmonies from Blue Unicorn) of “The Night We Met” we’re struck with a blend of voices which is quite sublime…leading us into a solo vocal from Nick Fenix with vocal harmonies from the always brilliant Sonia Hutchinson (Crowsilver) and the aforementioned Blue Unicorn hitting just as the lyrics begin to bring emotional depth and gives this weight-we hear quite ethereal, emotionally charged and tonally rich four part harmony around the main voice (I hear around six-eight vocal parts here weaving a beautiful sonic tapestry, but I may be wrong…point is, though that all of these harmonies are eloquently and beautifully performed by each vocalist and the blend of voices sits so well within the themes running through this piece). Lyricist and composer of this piece Benjamin Emory Schnieder has created quite a brilliant song to work from and Nick Fenix has produced this exceptionally-from the vocal harmonic punctuations to the subtle yet beautiful guitar lines throughout-this is a well-thought-out, highly emotive piece of musical storytelling captured beautifully with sonic imagery and sound design which suits perfectly the almost wistful feeling of wanting to return to the night the protagonist first met their partner. The lyric lines from the start and all throughout are written in beautifully poetic form and imagery from “I am not the only traveller who is not repaying his debt…” sung solo along with wonderfully sparse piano and guitar accompaniment all the way until the very first time we hear the refrain “Take me back to the night we met…” then when all voices (along with bass guitar then drums from recording and mixing engineer Hobbs gradually joins in…) “Then I can tell myself what the hell I'm supposed to do…” to the repeated refrain “Take me back to the night when we met” (even though the nights were full of terror and “eyes were filled with tears” and “you had not touched me yet”- the protagonist still yearns to go to the night they met…he doesn't know what he’s supposed to do haunted by the ghost of the person he’s pining for longing to go “back to the night when we met”)…this wistful song leads into a beautiful guitar solo which all of a sudden drifts away into a haunting closing where everything seems to fade away into a piano chord which has a sense of finality to it…have we just come back to the night when they met? The exquisitely haunting harmonies (two disparate adverbs here which somehow describe this sense of questioning and a wish for the past to return) and the closing chord, with an arpeggio which leads to a wind chime sound is a captivating choice as we are left wanting to go back to the melodies and evocative harmonies which make this song, this COLLABORATION so emotionally powerful and a beautiful performance. You do want to go back to hear this through again. Another exceptional example of what happens when artists share their own unique talents and gifts amongst one another while supporting and encouraging the talents of each artist to shine through-creating a song of beauty and a wonderful reflection on how our indie community can be and IS all the way through…in one song.
