Lunatic Soul - Through Shaded Woods (for fans of Riverside, Wardruna & Dead Can Dance

[Valen]

If any of you are familiar with Poland's progressive metal band Riverside, then you may also be aware of their bassist's side project Lunatic Soul, which allows him creative freedom to explore and experiment with ambience and sound.

Mariusz Duda's project is literally a one-man band, as he plays everything, and on his seventh album Through Shaded Woods, he's raised his game further in widening the range of instruments. He's also surprised fans of the previous albums, by edging away from the more industrial electronica of the previous albums, to something more organic and analogue.

The audio mixing on his albums is excellent, on a par with the likes of Steven Wilson, and if you enjoy the music of Wardruna and Dead Can Dance, then this album may well be to your taste. It's very quickly become one of my favourites for this year.

The album has just been released, and I've put together a blog review - hope you find it helpful:

https://momentstransition.wordpress....ed-woods-2020/

[Splicer]

After one listen, I thought it was quite good. I like Duda's voice quite a bit - very emotional and creates a great mood.

[Steve983]

I have one Lunatic Soul album which is Impressions but I have never quite felt the urge to buy any of the others. Thanks for the review.

[Cygnus74]

Impressions is probably not the best album to judge this project on. Well worth investing some time in some of the other albums.

[Valen]

Actually, Impressions has a lot in common with the 27 minute track - Transition II - on the bonus disc.

You could say that this track is the Lunatic Soul equivalent of Floyd's infamous "Big Spliff" experiment.

[SongForAmerica]

The new album's sixth song, "The Fountain," is stunning--beautiful but melancholy. Excellent singing, thoughtful lyrics, and glorious strings. Very emotional. I discovered it last night and spent three hours today singing it over and over.

If you like the softer parts of Anathema's "Dreaming Light," you might like "The Fountain."

[Boceephus]

The Fountain hooked me on the first listen. Gorgeous melody!


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[miamiscot]

This might be my favorite Dudas release - with or without Riverside. It's that good.

[SongForAmerica]

The 28-minute song "Transition II" is also very good. Although occasionally repetitive, it contains some passages of amazing beauty.