Artist: Lunatic Soul
Album: II
Release: 2010
“… Banished to everlasting wanderings ”
Ever get the feeling you’re being watched? Like, you are walking down the sidewalk and you feel eyes on you but when you look around there’s no one to be seen? Being the superstitious person that I am, two options run through my head. One: the fairies are here to get their revenge on me for taking a stone from Newgrange over the summer. Two: Some kindly spirit is passing through the area revisiting important places in his or her life before moving on. Lunatic Souls second release amply titled II is a grand representation of the latter. II is the musical continuation of the themes Lunatic Souls mastermind and Riverside front man Mariusz Duda started back in 2008 with the first release under this name. The idea of Lunatic Soul is one of life and death. The first record centered around a man’s passing and his spirit coming to terms with this fact. So in II, the spirit is wandering and searching for a purpose. If you haven’t guessed already, this is quite the haunting little record. It’s a soft and moody listen that takes awhile to settle in your mind. For how simple the melodies and how melancholic the mood is, it’s surprising how calming this record can be. It’s like Peter Gabriel met Steven Wilson in the early 90’s and decided to record something together. Hidden in all the songs are homage’s to Porcupine Tree when they were still exploring the depths of space and Mr. Gabriel’s straight-to-the-point style lyrics of his solo works. One song specifically, Transition, is one of the best pieces of music I’ve ever heard. But even with a statement like that, it doesn’t overshadow the other songs on II. What we have here is a rare kind of inward thinking album that doesn’t get caught up in the over ambitiousness other concept albums do. It’s simple and that’s what astounds me. There’s no electric guitar here – only acoustic. This stylistic approach to the music adds so much to the albums overall mood that I can’t imagine this project with electric instruments. It may sound strange, but electric instruments would take away the pureness of the record. This motif of simplicity is also present the albums cover. Both Lunatic Soul records have the same image for their covers but one is the polar negative of the other. Death and life – black and white – yin and yang. II transports us to a world of mist and memories so vivid and inspiring that it’s a sort of tragedy when the album ends. I can only hope there will be more Lunatic Soul releases in the future. One of these days I’ll have to listen to I and II back to back and see what happens. I have a feeling whatever occurs will be magical. Here’s hoping Mr. Duda continues producing high quality work like this because Lunatic Soul is truly brilliance realized in musical form.
No comments:
Post a Comment