THROUGH SHADED WOODS

There is nothing else quite like the thrill of entering into the world of Lunatic Soul. Well, it's less of a thrill, and more of a sacred joy, or at least that is how it feels sometimes. Lunatic Soul is back with a new album, called "Through Shaded Woods", and I imagine that it will be remembered as one of the best. The album releases on November 13th through Kscope.

Lunatic Soul is the original solo output for Mariusz Duda of Riverside. I still remember first hearing the LS debut and falling instantly in love with this very different side of his musical expression. Over the years, the project has explored folk, post-prog, electronic, and Gothic ideas, gathering all of these concepts into one mysterious and hazy experience. Indeed, there is a romance and a hidden sentiment in every single album that rouses my love for enigma, spirituality, and gravity. In fact, the lyrics and storyline for this project are so complex and yet so powerfully emotive that I still haven't attempted to write a spotlight for any of them. This project is both painstakingly human as well as blissfully otherworldly, and I cherish that.

With "Through Shaded Woods", Mariusz has returned somewhat to the sound of the first two records. Now, I say "somewhat" because this record doesn't just explore vague folkish ideas, aka Dead Can Dance, but employs that darkness to explore Scandinavian folk music very specifically with all the evocation and wonder that it deserves. Mariusz is a big fan of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and so you will hear that mountainous sound throughout the album, but also the green of hushed forests and fantastical creatures. I especially love the moments where Mariusz pays tribute to the Dragon Shouts from Skyrim with utter class and melody.

As usual, no electric guitars are present on this album, though Mariusz does manipulate his trusty bass to sound like distorted electric guitar at a few points. This album is heavy in that regard, though still retaining the spacious, murky whiteness of Lunatic Soul II. Indeed, this album is most at home with itself with tumultuous percussion, raging bass, and unnervingly peaceful atmospheres creating layers of beauty and light, darkness and sadness, faith and courage.

There are two things I need to mention about the music here. First, this might be the best vocal performance of Mariusz's career thus far. He certainly has one of my favorite voices ever, but I just feel something more colorful, more melodic, and more harmonious in his vocals on this album. His voice is truly a beacon of light here, and I have to admit that I've been deeply impressed by his diction and articulation. Most people wouldn't notice that, I know, but there are moments when Mariusz pronounces each and every sound in a word with such effortless precision and clarity that my love for language grows just a little.

Secondly, while this album may rely on thundering percussion, voluptuous bass, and serene keys at times, the real star of the show is Mariusz's acoustic guitar. He weaves folk melodies with such care and fleeting exactitude on almost every song, playing with illustrious skill and festive feeling. Honestly, it makes me want to dance sometimes, which isn't like me. Not since witnessing Steve Hackett's 12-string guitar skills live have I been so mesmerized by acoustic playing.

Lyrically, "Through Shaded Woods" is absolutely wonderful. I honestly haven't figured out Mariusz's map of where each album fits in his timeline, but I can still make out the general feelings here. This album seems to mention the afterlife ferryman's warning in "The Final Truth" from the debut. This warning was that the protagonist had to make a choice: to keep or lose his memories of life. If he chose to keep them, his loved ones would forget him. If he chose to lose his memories, he would be remembered forever. This album seems to take place directly after Lunatic Soul II, then, as that album was the protagonist's entrance into the afterlife. "Through Shaded Woods" sees our friend learning to cope with the things he has seen and felt. He is living his afterlife, more or less, and he seems to be reaching out to his lover in his past life. The lyrics are therefore quite sorrowful and introspective, yet I find them to be confident and daring, too. Our friend is beginning to have faith, something that has eluded him in life. He especially seems to have faith that he will see his love again one day, if only he can let go of her for the moment.

The full version of "Through Shaded Woods" has two discs. The first disc is the main part of the album, coming to six tracks. The second disc has three bonus tracks, which I believe is a necessary part of the album, especially if you are already a fan. We've all heard the two singles, "Navvie" and "The Passage", both of which are excellent. I love the winding mystery of the former, especially Mariusz's smooth vocals. The latter is like a progressive epic in some ways, despite only be 9 minutes long. I love the various transitions and the heavy portion, but I think the acoustic guitar steals the spotlight.

The rest of the album is just as good. The title track is dark and mysterious for the first half before transitioning into some truly phenomenal vocal lines. I love how his voice interweaves with the keys at the end. "Oblivion" (maybe another ode to Elder Scrolls?) was my favorite after first listen. This track has the Dragon Shouts and a very folkish atmosphere and rhythm. I love how that rhythm remains, unrelenting, for the entire track, and everything else happens along that touchstone. "Summoning Dance" is a ten-minute track that is delicate and truly lovely, not to mention having some of the best lyrics. It has a iron ton of bass in its blood, and the rising acoustic rhythm peaks near the end with some atmospheric keys that remind me of "Walking on a Flashlight Beam".

The final track is called "The Fountain", and it is certainly one of my favorite songs of the year. For one thing, it makes me cry every time I hear it. The song is so full of heartbreak and loss, longing and passion, that I cannot help but empathize. Yet, it is full of confidence and patience, too. This song is mostly just an acoustic ballad, but Mariusz sings magnificently, and the lyrics are so potent. In the second half, a sweeping tide of feelings, keyboards, and piano takes us away to another place, and everything sounds simply perfect.

The second disc does not lack in quality. The first couple songs, "Vyraj" and "Hylophobia" (fear of forests), are pounding, boisterous affairs. You will rollick right along with the folk rhythms; they are definitely fun tracks. Then comes "Transition2", a twenty-seven minute experience. This song feels like a tribute to the entire discography, to the places we've been and the visions we've seen. You will hear familiar snippets of past LS songs, only re-recorded and played and sung differently. The song is mostly new, however, with those snippets just providing structure. Overall, it does indeed remind me of "Transition", which happens to be my favorite LS track for various reasons. This sequel passes through many moods and places, some riveting and tumultuous, and some peaceful and quieting. It is a beautiful song, one that I need to explore even more.

"Through Shaded Woods" feels like the grand culmination of everything Lunatic Soul has worked to create. While it focuses on folk sounds, I feel like each and every LS album is important to how this one was created. Mariusz has definitely been busy this year, and he has outdone himself with this moving masterpiece.

Originally posted on theprogmind.com

The folk side of master songwriter and singer Mariuz Duda.

1. "Navvie" (4:03) powerful and deeply engaging in a FAUN kind of way. My favorite song on the album. (9.5/10)

2. "The Passage" (8:57) dull and boring. (17/20)

3. "Through Shaded Woods" (5:51) a little too repetitive and drawn out (8.75/10)

4. "Oblivion" (5:03) That voice! Great use of zither, synths, and hand percussives. A top three song from me. (9/10)

5. "Summoning Dance" (9:52) nice start but, as is often the case with Mariuz Duda's Lunatic Soul songs, it fails to deviate from the foundation, only adding pretty and interesting incidentals here and there. Nice vocal melody and performance(s)--especially in the choruses. (There is an uncredited female voice singing background harmonies in the choruses). I like the use of piano, mandolin, and synths. When it goes slightly house/disco in the sixth minute, it's an interesting distraction, but then it goes rock with the fuzzy electric guitars and THIN LIZZY-like multiple guitar riffing. At the 8-minute mark there is a gap of stillness before returning to a full soundscape of all that has occurred before while synth strings lead over the top. (17.5/20)

6. "The Fountain" (6:04) a beautiful and very different song, vocal. Reminds me a little of a modern version of the 1970s band BREAD--or of something from Andrew Lloyd-Weber's Phantom of the Opera. (9/10)

Total Time 39:50

First disc: 4.5 stars; an excellent addition to any prog lover's music collection. Special Ltd Edition Bonus CD: 1. "Vyraj" (5:32) a lively pagan folk romper in the vein of many of the more recent circle dances of FAUN. Mostly instrumental but some nice shifts in the soundscape along the way. (9/10)

2. "Hylophobia" (3:20) the heavier, almost rockin' side of mariuz cannot be denied (he's done it for far too long with Riverside). Add the folk percussion instruments and you have an aggressive almost folk music similar to that of Ivar Bhørnson and Einar Selvik on their 2018 Viking folk masterpiece, Hugsjá. (A little more drum reliant than Ivar and Einar's work.) (8.5/10)

3. "Transition II" (27:45) opens with the very familiar breathy synth sounds from the opeing of Marius' 2010 epic "Transitions" from Lunatic Soul's second album, II. Added intstruments and sounds show early on that Mariuz is definitely developing this version quite differently than the original. At the four-minute mark the addition of a fuzzy guitar to the layers signals a completely new direction and, within the minute, we have moved completely into the territory made familiar by MIKE OLDFIELD. Is this further confirmation that Mariuz has caught the Mike Oldfield Syndrome in which an artist gets lured into the pattern of going back and redoing, remixing, or refreshing old songs/ideas? The section here from the seven-minute mark sounds exactly like something from the mind (and discography) of Mike Oldfield. At 12:30 we begin to move out of Mike Oldfield territory as two guitars, bass and synth wash enter a more New Age soundscape. (I know one of Mariuz' heroes is Vangelis.) In the eighteenth minute, then, we move over into the more relaxing, bluesy side of the 21st Century New Age psychedelia--like a cross of old Pink Floyd with At 20:50 Mariuz starts a whole new song with vocalise, and a catchy multi-chord progression strummed by his electric guitar. This is cool. This is a difficult song to rate because of its multiple themes and palette choices. In the 26th minute, Mellotron like vocal banks introduce a kind of Gregorian-chant version of the original sound scape complete with a long decaying synth finish. (47.5/55)

Total Time 36:37

With bonus material = B+/four stars; still an excellent addition to any prog lover's music collection--especially if you are A) a lover of Mariuz Duda's voice and B) you like the pagan folk vibe á la FAUN and WARDRUNA.

LUNATIC SOUL, side-project of the singer-bassist from Riverside has been exploring soft, soaring tones with synths backing since 2008; this 7th album transports us to a Scandinavian or Irish folk universe come to lend a hand; no electro here rough which he plays alone, looking to the past-future; an intimate, cold, icy music where tribal sounds finally release a little warmth, feelings and intrusive images able to make you travel alone through the use of own eidolias. "Navvie" with Irish folk sounds and accordion, bass, Mariusz's voice linear, haunting, basic, bewitching, acoustic atmo, appetizer. "The Passage" for a repetitive acoustic track, a monophasic suite that sets in motion halfway, a metallic riff that becomes embedded, we suddenly find ourselves at a banquet (more than 6 and more!) Where the 'we dance drunk on a weathered tree that serves as a table, a title not to be underestimated. "Through Shaded Woods" for the progressive Rajna-style vibe with binary sounds and that tortured voice, reverberating jarring distortion that makes you shiver, a sound of old times with traditional instruments; the voice is recovering with a normal stroke, ending with rustling of footsteps in the leaves. "Oblivion" with Dead Can Dance hovering here! Ritual drum, orchestra, troubadour rhyme that is nothing sensational except for this bucolic air and this enchanting voice of Mariusz. "Summoning Dance" which immediately reminds me of the sound of Anathema in their scintillating acoustic tunes; dream, purity, joy, crescendo with the contribution of the piano, acoustic guitars, electric bass and synths filling the fresh air of the undergrowth, everything to make bare feet dance in trance on the humus from the forest. "The Fountain" ending melody that could appear on a Riverside album, sad song about returning hope, crystal-clear piano, twilight orchestration and the astonishing beauty that goes with it, there we touch on the introspective ambient. 40 minutes that make you want to grab the luxury version with 3 bonuses, let's go: "Vyraj" for an instrumental title, folk trance, binary, stereotypical, bewitching taking up this hypnotic guitar frame; the voice is only whispered here, the synth in the background. "Hylophobia" on the shortest track and a dynamic riff well in the style of Riverside, you have to wait for the middle to return to these sounds from the cold. "Transition II" for the track you have to listen to; a trip here on Riverside, dub, on Mike Oldfield with that lush xylophone stint; then metallic percussions, an extension of "He Av En" from the previous album, intertwined sections which mix to merge and give by musical alchemy an incredible piece; further on, an atmosphere of an S-F movie soundtrack, you might think you could hear Tangerine Dream or Max Richter, it's beautiful to the baby's cry of wonder; 37 minutes more for a double chronicle of fact.

Primitive, ritual dances, composed in his childhood home invaded by forests, this album is a trap with these single-string and monophasic atmospheres which are loaded with reverberations; Safe from his ancestral torments Mariusz was able to deliver basic, archaic, Celtic, ambient music where melancholy torpor creates a musical oxymoron on fire and shadow, life and death, a memory on the moving film "L 'Isle ". a reminder of the sounds of Dead Can Dance and Peter Gabriel or even Heilung or Clannad in which Enya worked there for a while. Mariusz loves monotonous rhythmic repetitive sounds and shows it by transcending them, giving them an afterlife.

Who does not know Mariusz DUDA, this champion of Prog music, this singer with a divine voice, this brilliant multi-instrumentalist and composer? I hear it said here and there that it could be the new STEVEN WILSON as his talent is monumental! LUNATIC SOUL has been his solo project since 2008 as he exercises his abilities as a bassist and vocalist for the world famous band RIVERSIDE. Mariusz DUDA is the plural man who has achieved the feat of finding himself for the first time totally alone at the helm and working on all the tracks, while he worked in the company of guests on previous albums. But do not confuse him with the man-orchestra all the same! So here we are with a seventh cake: "Through Shaded Woods"which offers us six songs with a bonus of three additional songs. Unlike "Fractured" and "Under The Fragmented Sky" this last album is almost devoid of electronics except bonus and electric guitar. Mariusz DUDA prefers as usual to use an acoustic guitar and his bass as hersazt instead of electric guitar. Her voice is refined from album to album: here she manages to make us waver in melancholic verses using a timbre with a remarkably precise articulation.usually use an acoustic guitar and its bass as hersazt instead of electric guitar. Her voice is refined from album to album: here she manages to make us waver in melancholic verses using a timbre with a remarkably precise articulation.usually use an acoustic guitar and its bass as hersazt instead of electric guitar. Her voice is refined from album to album: here she manages to make us waver in melancholic verses using a timbre with a remarkably precise articulation.

"Through Shaded Woods" brings us back to his first two albums with folk themes in the fringe of DEAD CAN DANCE to now venture into Scandinavian, Slavic or even Celtic landscapes with groups like HEILUNG or WARDRUNA as references. Mariusz knows how to make us travel to dreamlike and magical lands by developing conceptual sets filled with mysteries and darkness from Nordic folklore. He manages to captivate the listener by plunging him into the heart of a lush and vaporous forest where fabulous beings can appear at any time. Mariusz found his inspiration for the album in his childhood home, an area of ​​Poland known for its forests and lakes, "I think I always wanted to create an album imbued with nature and woods. These mebring freedom, breathing and a return-to-nature dance ritual, so I wanted the album to include ritualistic primitive dances, shamanic, Slavic and Viking vibes. I wanted to mix it all up and put it all together, making "Through Shaded Woods" the most intense, dynamic and dancing album of my career. "He is also a big fan of video games like Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim stuffed with soundtracks with similar atmospheres already mentioned above. Let's take a closer look at the new world of Mariusz ...the most intense, dynamic and dancing album of my career. "He is also a big fan of video games like Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim stuffed with soundtracks with similar atmospheres already mentioned above. Let's take a closer look at the new world of Mariusz ...the most intense, dynamic and dancing album of my career. "He is also a big fan of video games like Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim stuffed with soundtracks with similar atmospheres already mentioned above. Let's take a closer look at the new world of Mariusz ...

"Navvie" is a flashy piece that will delight the average listener from the first notes, a good appetizer. Dry guitar and shamanic incantations begin a beautifully sung and devilishly cadenced refrain, bass drum, tambourine and harmonica playing in the distance to indicate that we are in the territory of legends and invite us in a frantic dance with rock and folklore allures (8.5 / 10 ). A sad sire desperately searches for "The Passage" while the time of life passes at full speed, trapped between two worlds he seeks the light and his memories. And there we can say that there was light, and that he succeeded in recalling us to his fond memories! An incredible softness emerges from Mariusz's voice, a voice that comes out of the back of the throat and grabs us like a breeze in spring.Acoustic guitar and light bass guitar mix and alternate on a wonderful melody worthy of the most beautiful compositions. Here we go from folk to pop, from pop on a rise of metal and we come back to typically Slavic folklore with a passage cadenced by a bass with intoxicating effects. As the English would say: "masterpiece"! (10/10).

The title song "Through Shaded Woods" takes us back to popular Nordic music and places us in the middle of an enchanted and abundant forest. A heavy and bewitching tempo harmonizes around an intermittently hatched voice with the help of a vocoder, accompanied by the same instruments already mentioned, and producing sounds arousing a typically ancestral past. Tambourine, mysterious flute, folk acoustic guitar, and voices whispering in the distance behind the trees transmit to this piece a most successful cinematic atmosphere (9/10). "Oblivion" looks like a relatively cheerful ritual dance, like a feast where the whole village gathers around a blaze. Drum beats accompanied by a dry guitar, a synth in the background and,from the enchanting voice of Mariusz, humming and singing the most harmonious verses (8.5 / 10). A calm guitar begins "Summoning Dance" with an equally sweet voice, a beautiful melancholic melody tells us the weariness of present and past lives, with the feeling of no longer having the strength to move forward, the awareness of inexorably repeating the same course. This chorus surrounded by a beautiful piano is transformed into a rock / heavy music of beautiful invoice in a style which could evoke THIN LIZZY or JUDAS PRIEST. The same quality as the previous pieces, this invitation to dance makes me tap my foot, and makes me want to take out my old guitar to try out its fast and catchy arpeggios (9/10).A calm guitar begins "Summoning Dance" with an equally sweet voice, a beautiful melancholic melody tells us the weariness of present and past lives, with the feeling of no longer having the strength to move forward, the awareness of inexorably repeating the same course. This chorus surrounded by a beautiful piano is transformed into a rock / heavy music of beautiful invoice in a style which could evoke THIN LIZZY or JUDAS PRIEST. The same quality as the previous pieces, this invitation to dance makes me tap my foot, and makes me want to take out my old guitar to try out its fast and catchy arpeggios (9/10).A calm guitar begins "Summoning Dance" with an equally sweet voice, a beautiful melancholic melody tells us the weariness of present and past lives, with the feeling of no longer having the strength to move forward, the awareness of inexorably repeating the same course. This chorus surrounded by a beautiful piano is transformed into a rock / heavy music of beautiful invoice in a style which could evoke THIN LIZZY or JUDAS PRIEST. The same quality as the previous pieces, this invitation to dance makes me tap my foot, and makes me want to take out my old guitar to try out its fast and catchy arpeggios (9/10).with the feeling of no longer having the strength to move forward, the awareness of inexorably repeating the same course. This chorus surrounded by a beautiful piano is transformed into a rock / heavy music of beautiful invoice in a style which could evoke THIN LIZZY or JUDAS PRIEST. The same quality as the previous pieces, this invitation to dance makes me tap my foot, and makes me want to take out my old guitar to try out its fast and catchy arpeggios (9/10).with the feeling of no longer having the strength to move forward, the awareness of inexorably repeating the same course. This chorus surrounded by a beautiful piano is transformed into a rock / heavy music of beautiful invoice in a style which could evoke THIN LIZZY or JUDAS PRIEST. The same quality as the previous pieces, this invitation to dance makes me tap my foot, and makes me want to take out my old guitar to try out its fast and catchy arpeggios (9/10).want to take out my old guitar to try my hand on its fast and catchy arpeggios (9/10).want to take out my old guitar to try my hand on its fast and catchy arpeggios (9/10).

"The Fountain" is a deluge of melancholic feelings, Mariusz uses here his voice in the depths of his being to share with us gently the bitterness of a love which ends, a strong song which releases a pure and intense emotion to tears, it's incredibly beautiful! (9/10). After this heartbreaking interlude we are brought to get our feet wet again with "Vyraj" and to view wild and rocky regions from the sky. A well-cadenced bass with an electric and repetitive feel accompanies an incisive acoustic guitar. Intermittently a voice without words reminds us that this drunk with rock turns remains entirely under the yoke of a typically Nordic culture. But here nothing new under the Scandinavian sun ... (7/10). "Hylophobia"is a kind of childish round hard version with the same arguments already mentioned. A voice hums in snatches on thunderous percussions and a heavy repetitive bass. Nothing too bad, just fun and without complexity ... (6/10) "Transition II" is a multi-genre piece of over twenty-seven minutes which deals with varied and captivating atmospheres. I would first retain this feeling of fullness, characterized by long ambient and soothing passages. Very intimate parts very peeled with analytical instruments placed here and there like MIKE OLDFIELD, electro beat effects and electro pop sounds in the style of CHEMICAL BROTHERS, guitar resonances which sometimes drift towards the WHO, and a return to well-rhythmic folklore sources.This compartmentalized opus looks like a show of force, a sort of parade with the fireworks that go with it (9/10).

Vocally this album is perfect, here Mariusz masters the art of singing like never before and really gives the impression of living intensely its darkness to better exhort it and transform it positively. The playing of the acoustic guitar and a fiery and unleashed bass like an electric guitar brings a more playful side than they lacked in previous albums. Tumultuous percussions in harmony with the ambient folklore make it possible to transmit all the energy necessary for this work to result in sensational organic and tribal effects of the most cinematic. The compositions are well written and melodically of a high standard. On this album we find familiar excerpts from past songs, reworked and played differently.We will also notice the precision and care given to the melodies and the playing of the instruments. But after all these positive points what is missing in this opus to make history? A little bit of complexity perhaps and a little more regularity in the quality surely. Yet we find ourselves positioned between the very good and the excellence, so what are you waiting for to get yourself one of the best albums of 2020 ?!

Released back in November, Through Shaded Woods is the 7th album of Lunatic Soul, the progressive rock/metal side-project of Mariusz Duda, vocalist and bass player of Polish prog-metallers Riverside. Since its inception in 2008, Duda has always used Lunatic Soul as a vehicle for releasing the more experimental sides of his music - be it ambient instrumental music, electronic-tinged rock, or acoustic folk - and Through Shaded Woods is no exception. Here, Duda pushes to the fore his acoustic and folk influences, resulting in an album that could sit comfortably in a record collection alongside Hexvessel, Wardruna or Heilung.

Differently from some of the bands named above, however, the six compositions included on Through Shaded Woods Soul maintain a distinctive rock/metal sound, as they all revolve around tight, rhythmic riffs that are not so distant from what Duda's main band Riverside use in their music. A major difference, however, lies in the instrumentation: the electric distortion that we can find aplenty on Riverside's albums is almost entirely absent here - bar the use of sporadic distorted bass lines, like on "The Passage" and in the second-half of "Summoning Dance". Acoustic guitars, bass and piano dominate the scene instead, giving the album a very sedated and intimate feel. There is also a greater emphasis on folk-infused themes, with several songs displaying a traditional dance-like character. This is further accentuated by the use of simple beats and percussions that impart a ritualistic feel to the songs. Sporadically, keyboard interjections and sound effects are used to add depth and color to the music, but for the most part the backbone of the songs is kept unplugged and low key.

The simple background is ideal to let Duda's unmistakable voice shine and take centre stage. His melancholic, heart-on-the-sleeve performance perfectly complements the music and reaches a high-point on the spending closing track "The Fountain", which is perhaps one of the most moving songs ever written by Duda. There are also beautiful multi-layered vocal harmonies throughout the album - a distinctive trait of Duda's songwriting that is even more prominent on this record. Also notable is Duda's choice to play all instruments himself on the album. Despite the inevitable simplification in the arrangements of some instruments (most notably, the drums/percussion), the choice actually pays off as it gives the album a more intimate and natural feel that matches well the record's general spirit.

Overall, Through Shaded Woods is another successful chapter in Mariusz Duda's remarkable career. It's a delicate and intimate album that, although it does not have the impact and power of some of Riverside's best albums, possesses a unique, hypnotic allure that keeps drawing me back for more. Duda's one-man side-project Lunatic Soul may have stayed off the radar of most metal fans, but you should give Through Shaded Woods a try, especially if you are into acts that sit at the intersection between metal and experimental neo-folk music.

(Originally written for The Metal Observer)

3.5 stars. While I don't have the previous album "Under The Fragmented Sky"(which is the lowest rated of the bunch on here) this 2020 release is my least favourite of the six studio albums I own by LUNATIC SOUL. Duda the RIVERSIDE frontman is doing it all by himself for the first time which sadly means the INDUKTI drummer is not participating which is a first. I would call this recording a pagan folk album which really isn't my thing. That back cover with the women doing the "Summoning Dance" is part of that of course. The music is pretty much acoustic guitar and Duda's vocals. The latter I never tire of but not being a big folk fan is keeping me from giving this that fourth star. My favourite record from LUNATIC SOUL is 2014's "Walking On A Flashlight Beam".

"Navvie" is the catchy and folky opener at 4 minutes in length. Some energy here as vocals and strummed guitar lead the way. "The Passage" at 9 minutes is more of the same with the vocals and acoustic guitar but we do get some atmosphere and at 5 1/2 minutes it turns surprisingly heavy with organ and more. It does let up after 7 minutes but stays intense. The title track opens and closes with acoustic guitar and atmosphere but I like when the vocals arrive at 2 1/2 minutes along with the bass.

"Oblivion" is another one with some energy with acoustic guitar and percussion sounds. Vocal expression then singing before 2 minutes. "Summoning Dance" is the longest at ten minutes and there's some uplifting moments and such a warm sound at times. I like this one. The closer "The Fountain" is melancholic with acoustic guitar and vocals but both will step aside late for the piano.

Man 2020 was a tough year for me, one of the worst in a long, long time. Sure we got some quality music but no depth of that. I enjoyed this one but it's down the list a ways when it comes to favourites for 2020.