This long overdue summary is something I’ve been trying to accomplish for a couple of years now but somehow I couldn’t get the feel of it right. The format I used for the Riverside reviews didn’t really work for Lunatic Soul. So I’ll try it this way: I’ve written a brief biographical sketch of each album in order of release date, and included what I think makes it work, what doesn’t work, and how I rank it. I will post up these sketches over the next week or so. Once I set up my Substack they will appear there as well. 

The rankings: this is not a matter of liking/disliking anything. I love all the albums but to somewhat different degrees, and for different reasons, which I have tried to explain. I expect I am in the minority for some of these, so if you agree or disagree, let me know! 

First though–a (very) brief introduction to the project. A complete and detailed history of Lunatic Soul will be found in my upcoming biography of Mariusz Duda. 

Between 2003 and 2008, Riverside released three full-length albums (the Reality Dream Trilogy) and one EP. However, for Mariusz Duda this was not enough. He had a lot of ideas and material that did not fit with the vision and direction he had for the band; and he wanted to be able to release music more often and of more variety than the band context would allow. He had no interest in creating a project that would simply be a solo version of Riverside–this new “musical world” had to have a distinct identity and sound, which is one reason no electric guitars have ever appeared. And so Lunatic Soul was born. 

Mariusz had initially planned for a project of two albums, a diptych united by common lyric and musical themes. He wanted to explore ideas around life and choices and what kind of impact one’s decisions can have after death–but he wanted to do this in the form of a narrative, a continuous story stretched across the two albums. One album cover would be black, and the other white (the colours of death–Duda has always associated colour to mood and theme, and one of the first decisions he makes about a new album for any of his projects is the colour of the cover). We are introduced to the iconic Lunatic Soul logo, the stylized, sinuous “l” and backwards “s” that would appear in some form on all the albums but one. Duda chose not to use his own name with the project, and so it is simply Lunatic Soul. 

Of course, Lunatic Soul did not stop after two albums: the project became much more complex both musically and lyrically. At some point in 2025 album number eight–the last album in the tale–will be released, and the Circle of Life and Death will be complete.