moon sessions vol. 1 is a soft and welcoming trio of songs from New York's Moon Sessions collective, a project spearheaded by Marwan Ramen that makes a point of being Gen Z, actively diverse, and vintage-inspired. As a veritable a cappella dinosaur, I had to smile at such careful demographic placement. The group's website notes their love of "vintage aesthetics", which I presume skips over my own Gen X rough edges entirely in favor of mid-century gorgeousness and fuzzy nostalgia, paired up with the beauty of modern youth.

Fuzzy nostalgia can be great, actually. All three of these songs are soft and welcoming. Attractive music sung by attractive people with attractive values — really, it's lovely. Because I am both old and likely incapable of such gentle artistry, my words will probably not do it justice. Nor am I familiar with Laufey, the 25-year old Icelandic multiculturalist cited as the guiding vibe on the Moon Sessions website, or the other two artists whose songs are covered here. But it's a good vibe, absolutely worth supporting.

Somehow. is my favorite track. It invokes the 1970s: film cameras, deliberately overexposed images, and really pretty singing. I appreciate the mix of harmonies and individual voices. The other two songs strike me as more direct homages to the Great American Songbook: How High the Moon, but make it the Cardigans. Or, I guess, Laufey? 

The Moon Sessions singers sing sweetly and without too much showing off or roof-raising. It's clear they know their business. Perhaps the collective is planning other projects that rock hard or punk out, and I would expect their talents to bear fruit in any direction they pursue. For now, though, this is music to play when it's dark out, a musical haven in which to rest after the daily grind. I like it a lot, and I expect most other people will, too.

In a social post, Marwan Ramen calls his award-winning project a vocal collective. Its purpose: "to occasionally sing some improvisational acapella [sic] and jam". Descriptions like "improv collective" conjure the kind of deep groove, repetitive circle songs made famous by Bobby McFerrin. This is not that. If Moon Sessions ever took this form, there is no trace of it on these three tracks. "Collective" here is meant to conjure the changing group make-up from project to project. It means fluid borders. So what is moon sessions vol. 1? A collection of whisper-in-your ear, indie leads floating like leaves on gentle jazz zephyrs. Ramen says they're "influenced in equal parts by groups like The Manhattan Transfer, instrumental chamber music, and contemporary indie vocal production", and he's right. But the description is also incomplete. These are songs of longing and timeless heartbreak delivered in a simultaneously modern and retro style, a unicorn sound, both for what it gives us and for what it carefully omits.

Indie ballad leads set the tone, delivered with inch-away, breathy intimacy by crooners Trem Ampeloquio, Claire McGuire, Christa Ciesil and Thalia Nicolalde. It's wall to wall talent but Ampeloquio's effortless alto, nay baritoness, is a casual stunner, an "oh, that old insanely low note? I just had it in an old pair of jeans…" — and a perfect foil for the perfectly dreamy higher-voiced sirens of the group.

Ramen arranges every track on the project and his gently dissonant jazz harmonies are a pleasure, as is his refreshing willingness to suddenly simplify vocal lines. But the most exciting ensemble moments are all about the precision phrasing. They aren't everywhere, but their arrival is like little punctuation marks that electrify the music.

Having brought up phrasing, there are some choices that can push more traditional listeners out of the zone — breaths taken right-in-the-middle-of (…) phrases: "find that (breath) I'm living by myself"; "nothing I can do but (breath) keep on loving you"; "I promise you that soon the autumn comes to dark and (breath) fading summer skies"; "Heaven knows I've (breath) tried"; "Someone will like me like I like (breath) you"; "more than (breath) friends". It's in every song. And while it's not offensive in these ear-nibbling renditions, it's also not hard to imagine bespectacled judges making breath support commentary in the margins. More casual (less uptight) listeners will happily float away on the gentle lilts, hearing only intentional (…) drama (…) in Moon's many pregnant pauses.

The only reason listeners could even perceive such subtlety is because of the boldly brilliant choice to ban vocal percussion from these otherwise contemporary tracks. Typical recording techniques call for three or more repeated takes of every ooh and ah to give fullness. Here, the tracking appears far more sparse with one voice on one note at a time, naked for the world to hear. Like a painted masterpiece, these performances would be beautiful in any setting, but the vocal craftsmanship without percussive or studio distractions is delightfully detailed.

Listen to these vocal tip toes at a fairly loud volume and on a quality system. It's an indulgence to immerse in lush, emotive, vocal performance and experience the bittersweet modern pathos of moon sessions vol 1.

Lovely, subdued, intoxicating earworm melody lines are the foundation for the debut release from Moon Sessions. Jazz-inspired chord choices and contemporary pop sensibility are ever-present, contributing to an overall easy listening experience. The EP is rife with potential, but it comes with an air of culmination from woodshedding sessions, which itself is a double-edged sword as some compositional choices feel haphazard or half-baked.

The strongest offering is the opening track, Somehow., which is stunning: the introduction has incredibly well-voiced chords, background consonants that fit and respond to the solo line, and the vibe is calm and grounded even in its most demonstratively passionate moments. The journey is captivating, the chords progress intuitively, and embellishments are welcome with further repetition of lyric lines. Cascading effects created by moving lines against static ones are simple, yet effective.

The strength of this track is somewhat misleading, though, because the two that follow feel considerably more bare and empty despite the five-voice medium, and they come with a myriad of structural issues. The second track, rises the moon, features a particularly memorable refrain melody, but well-voiced chords are followed by bare fifths, and chorus key changes are accompanied by chord changes that obscure the refrain's familiarity. At one point toward the end of Let You Break My Heart Again, a transition occurs abruptly that could be an artistic choice, but not a strong one, as it feels as though architecture and form are abandoned haphazardly.

There is an unreal amount of beauty on moon sessions vol. 1, and perhaps the strength of the first track is due in part to its brevity. In any case, it is clear that there is a great deal of imagination and artistry here. This is only the beginning, and if this debut EP is any indication, the future for Moon Sessions is bright.