Dec 07, 2022

By Caleb Campbell

Photography by Marcus Maddox

Tarune is the musical project of actor, producer, songwriter and Giullian Yao Gioiello. After first getting his start as an actor, Gioiello began breaking into the world of music as Tarune in 2019, crafting a dreamy and decadent style of minimalist art pop, entirely written and produced from his bedroom studio.

He’s shared a series of singles over the past few years, returning most recently this year with a pair of tracks, “Paris Syndrome” and “Preoccupied.” However, he’s now going back to “Goodnight Baby,” his first single in 2019 that saw a resurgence this year. He’s back today with an accompanying video for the track, premiering with Under the Radar.

“Goodnight Baby” is a startlingly intimate effort, finding Tarune tracing the contours of a love gone cold as he retreats into a comforting fantasy一 “Goodnight baby / Should you prey on me? / Then I dare to stay / In a dream / Goodnight baby / I’ll be here / In my room / Next to you.” It’s a song made for cold and lonely nights, but Tarune nonetheless delivers it with warmth and generous beauty. He bolsters the longing confessional with stark acoustic strums, flashes of glistening keys, and distant harmonies, each element encircling his lovely spotlit vocals.

Meanwhile, the accompanying video brings out the otherworldly and dreamy side of the track. First inspired by Paul Schneggenburger’s photo series The Sleep of the Beloved, the video shades Taurune in stark black and white as he sleeps, imagining a restless lover on the other side of his dream.

Tarune is joined in the video by Ukrainian actress Ivanna Sakhno (Disney’s Star Wars: Ahsoka, MGM’s The Reunion) and it also features Charlotte Rose Benjamin (whose music we have previously covered) and Eric Tabach (The Cat and the Moon, High Maintenance on HBO). Tarune also worked with choreographer Gianna Reisen, along with creative director and cinematographer Bellamy Brewster and creative direction and titles from Lulu Yao Gioiello.

Tarune says of the video, “We wanted to explore a visual language that captured the feeling of Goodnight Baby, which has always been a sort of melancholy lullaby. It’s a meditation on the line I often walked between dream and reality — and the power of choosing to stay in a dream when the reality was too painful.”

Check out the song and video below, out everywhere now.