Lunatic Soul - Through Shaded Woods

Monday, new week and time to introduce "Record Of The Week".

"Through Shaded Woods" is the seventh album by LUNATIC SOUL, the solo studio music project of the multi-talented creator, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mariusz Duda. As the lead singer of the hugely popular prog-rock band RIVERSIDE, LUNATIC SOUL was created in 2008 as an opportunity for Duda to explore musical territories outside the rock domain. Mariusz Duda is an incredibly creative man, with records under LUNATIC SOUL, RIVERSIDE and as solo "Mariusz Duda", five album the last two years, shows a musician who really can not sit still at all.

On "Through Shaded Woods" Duda extends his musical explorations to include dark Scandinavian and Slavic folk, referencing bands like HEILUNG or WARDRUNA. Following the heavily electronic soundscapes of previous albums "Fractured" and "Under The Fragmented Sky", "Through Shaded Woods" is completely devoid of electronics and is the first album in Duda's back catalogue on which he plays all instruments. Duda appears to have put the personal darkness that inspired his previous albums behind him, as more optimistic elements shine through in his new music.

The album "Through Shaded Woods" tells a story is about breaking free from the great beyond, about making your way to the other side, about a second chance and coming back to life and is an incredible journey from start to finish, where it's emerging into a more illuminated place musically as it progresses from the atmospheric introduction of "Navvie", folkish rhythms, chanting vocals, old-fashioned sounding instruments that creats almost hypnotic atmosphere, it’s instantly accessible. It follows up with the nine minute "The Passage", opens up in a more traditional way, finger picking acoustic guitar, neat and mournful vocals, beautifully builds up with the lowerstrings, halfway true the electric is switched on and the tune takes another turn with a more metallish sounding with vikings preparing for battle. The long walk "Through Shaded Woods" where the ancient forst breads in your neck along with the electric vocal vibrato, finger picking bassline and background whistling. Tribal rhythms opens up the melodic "Oblivion", a powerful piece where the vocal is currently beautiful. The marvelous vocals continues on the almost ten minute "Summoning Dance", finger picking guitar along with a powerful atmosphere of piano, an other string instruments, both acoustic and electric, a tune that is very progressive, catchy and danceable. The closing tune on the Vinyl and the normal CD is "The Fountain", a withdrawn beauty where the piano has the main part in a orchestral inviroment along with a mornful vocal, a perfect ending. The album is a real beauty, alot of heavy feelings, heartbreakes and dark moments. This is the most refined and richest sounding album he have done.

Sum: A dark Scandinavian and Slavic folk album at it's best. Highly Recomended.

As the title would suggest, the main color of "Through Shaded Woods" is dark green, at least for the Vinyl. In these incredibly trying times, I wish each one of us exactly that: healing, hope and freedom. The Deluxe version will give you 3 more tunes with 36 minutes more music. It was released November 13, 2020

Today's tune "Navvie", "Nav" (Polish spelling "Nawie") is the name for the Slavic underworld, and also denotes the souls of the dead, so it gives me great pleasure to welcome everyone to my music underworld. The "dancing souls" from the album artwork and the new videoclip make the world turn green. And green is the colour of healing, hope and freedom. Enjoy!



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