THROUGH SHADED WOODS

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 ?!