Lunatic Soul

Initially starting life as the solo project of bass player Mariusz Duda from Polish prog-metal favourites Riverside, Lunatic Soul explore grand, brooding soundscapes and experiment with icy, ambient electronica, acoustic grooves and global beats and melodies. Based in Warsaw, Duda was originally a member of melodic, experimental outfit Xanadu in the 1990s, but joined forces with guitarist Piotr Grudzinski and the other Riverside crew in 2002 and attempted to combine the thrashing, theatrical thunder of classic metallers like Marillion and Dream Theater with ambient, industrial, electronic influences. It proved a success as Riverside crafted an unusually atmospheric and sonically adventurous sound, topped the Polish charts with Anno Domini High Definition and became admired, fixtures of the European metal scene. Always keen to venture into new territory, Duda began dabbling more with electronic, synth sounds and, with demo material deemed unsuitable for Riverside, he created the self-titled, debut Lunatic Soul album in 2008. That same sparse, minimal aesthetic continued on Lunatic Soul II in 2010 and by 2014's Walking on a Flashlight Beam, Duda's heavy rock roots were a distant memory as he embraced a style that drew comparisons with Radiohead, Sigur Ros and Brian Eno. The death of both his father and his Riverside bandmate Grudzinski made Fractured the most personal and emotionally soul-bearing work of Duda's career, and he returned in 2017 with companion piece Under the Fragmented Sky on which he spoke defiantly of persevering through the troubled times and finding an optimistic future. Released in 2020, the organic Through Shaded Woods, on which Duda plays all the instruments, is inspired by Scandinavian and Slavic folk music. In 2025 followed the 89 minutes long The World Under Unsun.