Mahuna: Forever Is Mine
Berlin-Based Songwriter Mahuna Unveils Painfully Intimate Debut, “Forever Is Mine”With his debut album
by Jack Rush
Forever Is Mine, Belfast-born, Berlin-based artist Mahuna doesn’t just introduce himself—he opens a diary and invites you inside. Released May 30, 2025, on all streaming platforms and as a limited-edition vinyl, this 10-track, 35-minute collection plays like a sonic memoir—shaped over 25 years of lived experience, familial memory, and emotional observation. It’s not a record built for immediacy. Instead, it lingers, slow and radiant, like light through a curtained window.
Mahuna recorded much of the album live, preserving the raw edges of each performance—an intentional choice that reinforces the album’s emotional weight. As he puts it, Forever Is Mine is “a series of lived moments… each track is a map pin dropped into my past—whether in Berlin, Kerry, or Paris.” The result is a quietly breathtaking journey across both geography and time.
A Sonic Memoir Rooted in Place and Presence
The album’s opening track, “The Road I Have Wandered,” sets the tone: a reflective piece born in Berlin, where Mahuna looks back in order to move forward. Its layered acoustics, subtle ambient textures, and whispered vocals convey not just a story, but a state of being. This is followed by “Far-Off Summer’s Night,” a ghostly recollection of his father walking across Monaghan fields, told with sparse, haunting beauty.
Lead single “Shimmering Light,” released April 18, provides an early highlight. Set along Kinsale Bay in the company of his brother, the song captures a stillness often overlooked in modern songwriting. Fingerpicked guitar, reverb-soaked textures, and lyrical imagery steeped in nature and family create a moment that feels less like a track and more like a memory you forgot you had.
Other standouts include “Paris Dawn,” a melancholic story of grief and resilience unfolding in the soft amber of morning light, and “Where the Dark River Meets the Sea,” a deeply personal moment of joy in the Kerry Mountains that resonates with both escape and lingering sadness. The title track, “Forever Is Mine,” is inspired by a Belfast childhood moment reawakened by watching Mahuna’s own son at play. It’s gentle, resonant, and completely unhurried—an encapsulation of the album’s core ethos.
Minimalism as Emotional Power
Mahuna’s work recalls the introspective grace of Nick Drake, Glen Hansard, Damien Jurado, and Sufjan Stevens. Like these artists, he finds strength in subtlety. There’s no urgency here, no bombast. Every lyric is hand-carved. Every arrangement is spacious and restrained, allowing his deep, weathered vocals to carry truths that feel earned over time.
Songs like “Hazel Tree” and “Dream Winter’s Day” ground the listener in natural settings—places where reflection becomes inevitable. “Tear Down the Sails” offers a defiant anthem of recovery post-burnout, while the closing track, “They Won’t Be Coming Home,” conjures maritime ghosts in a grief-stricken village, closing the album on a note that’s both mournful and timeless.
Critical Acclaim and Artistic Voice
Mahuna’s previous singles already caught the ears of critics:
The Other Side called “Dream Winter’s Day” “a rich, haunting sonic journey.”
Illustrate Magazine praised “Underneath a Hazel Tree” for its “relaxing, warm, soothing acoustic melody.”
Lost in the Manor noted that Mahuna’s “lyrics are soul-filled, the metaphors deep, and the delivery consistently brilliant.”
This praise only amplifies with Forever Is Mine, which sees Mahuna fusing poetic lyricism with immersive sound design. It’s a work of real emotional and artistic maturity—the kind that doesn’t try to impress, but rather to connect.
Final Thoughts: A Quiet Triumph
In a musical era often dominated by immediacy, Forever Is Mine is a reminder of the power of patience. It doesn’t demand attention—it earns it. With each listen, it deepens, revealing quiet epiphanies and half-forgotten truths.
Mahuna hasn’t just made an album. He’s crafted a landscape of memory, a meditation on presence, and a tribute to the beauty of restraint. Forever Is Mine isn’t loud, but it’s lasting—and in that stillness lies its undeniable strength.
Essential listening for fans of:
Nick Drake · Glen Hansard · Damien Jurado · Sufjan Stevens
Have a listen to Mahuna on our Rattler Choons Spotify playlist:
