Lunatic Soul

Under The Fragmented Sky

Riverside main man’s side project entrances. Poland’s Mariusz Duda is stealthily becoming one of his country’s most interesting musicians, both as vocalist-bassist with his intoxicating prog band Riverside and in this parallel solo career under the Lunatic Soul name.

The sixth release as his alter ego is haunting, mesmeric and, in his words, “suspended somewhere between life and death”. Its nervy electronica consistently gives the sense that something explosive is about to happen. That release never comes, so the atmosphere remains charged and unsettling.

There’s much that strongly echoes Tangerine Dream, but Duda will then swerve into acoustic mournfulness – Riverside unplugged – without shattering the mood. His innately melancholy voice repeats phrases like ‘I try so hard to pretend’ until the net effect is something like Leonard Cohen partnering up with Popol Vuh.

Conceived as a companion piece to last year’s Fractured, a lyric from which forms its title, it outgrows any ‘supplementary’ status – at 36 minutes it’s brief, for him – and finds the subtle ways to marry his two strong suits of wounded balladeer and gothic-tinged, life-is-pain experimentalist.

Fragmented, yes, but also cohesive and cathartic.

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chris Roberts