Paul Farran shares its second single, Eclipsed.

Montréal’s Paul Farran was in the Afghan capital of Kabul on January 14 in 2008. There, two Taliban gunmen stormed the Serena Hotel. Paul escaped into the Afghan winter, covered in another man’s blood. Seven people did not. One attacker was captured alive; with the suicide vest he could not bring himself to detonate. For Paul, the years that followed became Stems from Darkness, a 12-track album and companion memoir. And from this work, Paul shares its second single, Eclipsed. Available for stream everywhere today, listen here.

Eclipsed is a narrative-led, cinematic, and atmospheric track that drops the listener directly into Paul’s world and reality. The swirling and angelic female backing vocals become clearer as the song progresses through soft piano, Paul’s baritone and lyrically intimate delivery, and accompanying violin and guitar picking.

“Eclipsed evolved as a realization that I was no longer trying to get rid of the darkness. It was part of me. But so were love, my family and everything that had happened since Kabul,” explains Paul. “Eclipsed is about those moments when the light becomes larger than the darkness, even though the darkness is still there. It’s also about living with darkness without allowing it to become the whole story. It doesn’t disappear. But it can be eclipsed, by love, connection, family, and the moments that return us to the present.”

Recorded between Montréal, Egypt and the UK, and co-produced and engineered by project drummer, Jules Pampena (System of a Down, Elephant Stone, plus live mixing credits with Billie Eilish, Portugal. The Man and more) Eclipsed began as an orchestral instrumental track but upon hearing this rendition, Paul’s industry advisor and renowned vocal coach, Yan Faraire, was incredibly moved and suggested reworking the arrangements and adding lyrics. Rather than turn it into a conventional rock arrangement, Paul opted to preserve the sense of space and gradual movement, heard throughout the single. One of the more important choices was to include and maintain the wordless female chant heard in the chorus. “I conceived it as an angelic presence, something that had been there beneath the darkness all along, even when the narrator couldn't perceive it. The contrast between that voice and my lower register became part of the emotional architecture of the song,” shares Paul.

The track title comes from the song’s central idea that darkness does not have to disappear for light to become visible. An eclipse is temporary and incomplete where one thing passes in front of another without destroying it. In the song, the aftermath of Kabul remains part of the narrator, but it no longer occupies the whole sky. The manuscript that is part of the project’s larger release, uses this image directly: darkness can be eclipsed by a starlit sky and a full moon.

“There’s something very tender about this song for me. It acknowledges that some things don’t leave you, and I don’t think I need them to anymore. There’s sadness in that, but also gratitude,” adds Paul. Eclipsed is not necessarily about overcoming though. For Paul, it’s also about coexistence. The darkness and the light are both there and one cannot exist without the other.

Eclipsed is the second single release from Paul’s upcoming album, Stems from Darkness and follows the previously released single, Absoluted II, which you can check out here, as well as the full single/project credits here.

The studio version of the track arrived July 10, followed on September 18 by Absoluted II — Live at MixArt along with its performance video. Absoluted II sits close to the immediate survival at the centre of the project: wreckage, cold, dissociation and the recurring image of an angel carrying the narrator through danger. The live version strips the song back to Paul’s voice alongside piano, drums and backing vocals. Listen here and watch the live performance video here.

Read more in Paul’s bio here and visit paulfarranmusic.com for more information about the upcoming joint album and memoir releases, and to learn more about Paul’s journey. As well, follow along on his socials below to stay up to date as Stems from Darkness comes to light.

ABOUT PAUL FARRAN:

Paul Farran is a Montréal artist and writer. On January 14, 2008, he was in Kabul when two Taliban gunmen stormed the Serena Hotel. He escaped into the Afghan winter, covered in another man’s blood. Seven people did not. One attacker was captured alive, with the suicide vest he could not bring himself to detonate.

Stems from Darkness (2027) is the work that followed — a continuous project across a 12-track album and a companion memoir, centred on rupture: how memory persists, reshapes, and resists resolution.

Baritone-led and cinematic, narrative-driven and spare, Farran's work sits in the lineage of Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave, with a modern sensibility shaped by Radiohead. His current practice spans album, memoir, and immersive narrative forms.

Drawing on work and life experience in crisis contexts across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, his work unfolds through sparse arrangements and a sustained emphasis on narrative and authorship.

Farran has previously released two albums as The Camino Side Project: North America (EP 2019), and of movement & music (LP 2018), recorded across 11 countries. These works explored longing, movement, and global encounter. Before his solo work, he was guitarist, songwriter, and co-founder of the Montréal alt-rock band, Pacer (1996–2004). He is represented globally for sync by Ray-On Music Services.