Obsession is a quiet, one-lane road. It begins with an innocent interest, with a fleeting glance that lingers longer than usual. No one notices when admiration turns into necessity, and a thought becomes an obsession. On this fragile border between yearning and madness, between love and loss, a story begins told in “Selene,” the mini-album by Shayan Regan, a musical release that serves as the starting point of a mythological narrative where sound is both form and content. Shayan Regan is like a person walking barefoot on morning dew: quiet, but leaving a trace. Born in the UK and raised in the noisy and multifaceted London, he spent some time sheltered under the soft light of the Florentine sun, and both cities, in their own way, have woven into his sound: London reflection and Italian pictoriality whisper to each other. Shayan works in the genres of pop, indie, folk, and acoustic. His voice is warm, soft, alive, sincere. As someone highly sensitive to the world, he pays special attention to song lyrics. And in creativity, he has no equal. His debut album “A Poison With an Aftertaste” he wrote, recorded, produced, and mastered alone, on a smartphone, using the ordinary app BandLab. Not out of a desire for minimalism, but out of pure impulse: when music is needed here and now, the tools don’t matter. This album made it into the Top 50 on Apple Music, but it seems that for Shayan, honesty of the moment was more important than recognition.
Inspired by masters of words like Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, and Bob Dylan, he absorbs the aesthetics of theater, jazz, country, modern acoustic, and pop — but never loses his own intonational center. His creative process is chaos, generously seasoned with attention to detail: a phrase heard on a tram can become a chorus. A passerby’s glance, a verse. For him, the story is the heart of the song. Without it, the sound is an empty shell. And when asked about the future, he answers: “I want to be happy and feel in my place, wherever I end up.” And in this lies the essence of all his music and, of course, the new EP Selene. This mini-album represents both the beginning of a story and a musical introduction to a larger concept currently in the works. Five songs,like chapters of a man’s inner pilgrimage, in love with the Moon. Her existence is not a matter of physics, but of feelings. What matters is not whether she is real, but how this love erases boundaries, melts reality, and sends consciousness into infinite space.
And the EP starts with the track “Eos” – it begins with acoustic vulnerability, warm and melancholic, before transforming into a dreamy psychedelic world, glam-rock rhythm, and cosmic rock. The incredibly melodic and languid vocal somehow leads you along, making you want to listen on repeat. For me, this is the first acquaintance with Shayan Regan’s work, and perhaps already enough to understand: I’m staying. The second track, “Luna,” continues the musical narrative started in “Eos,” preserving the same warmth and pastel softness of sound. A ballad about a man’s love for a woman, tender and contemplative, like a scene from a painting of the Florentine school: balanced, enlightened, filled with quiet reverence. Here feelings breathe restrained, deep, in the rhythm of the heart, in the glow of the Moon. However, behind this silence follows a surge, “Magnetica”, like a star’s flash, bright and magnetic, a track where the cosmos pulses through every sound. Its magnetic field is the bass flowing like liquid metal, the synthesizers sparkling, and the vocals guiding through orbits of an inner flight. The author created a gravity-like force in action, a dance of light and darkness.
Following this energetic burst comes “Drift” – like a neon night reflection on smooth water. It blooms with a shimmering disco-psychedelic pulse, like the reflection of stars on a dark water surface, slightly trembling from the movement of an invisible wind. A seductive dance where light synthesizer glimmers lead you spiraling to where past and present mix, and time dissolves in the haze of sound. “Drift” is a flight without a goal, a smooth glide on waves of feelings. The beat’s hit is like the pulse of someone who loves silently. And it is with the same emotional intensity that the final track “Perigee” begins, wrapped in retro-futuristic R&B textures, soft, rich sounds with a hint of nostalgia and anticipation. Layers of music create an atmosphere where retro motifs meet futuristic shine. It is difficult to find words to describe the full expressiveness of this song, it captivates and holds tension until the very end. The vocals, heated to the limit, powerful and passionate, break through the musical background, and this feeling only intensifies. An unforgettable and stirring finale.
The EP “Selene” by Shayan Regan is like a small universe, where each star holds its own secret, and together they create a vast glowing expanse. Listening to the EP, you feel the care with which the author approaches the music creation process. It turned out thoughtful and captivating. From this day on, I am a devoted fan of Shayan Regan. Now I just hope he won’t forget to sign an autograph for me when he becomes so starry that he has his own galaxy!
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