"Impressions iii" by Lunatic Soul - and further ruminations on Explosions in the Sky - Music

I just realized that I neglected to mention that the album "The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place," by Explosions in the Sky, which I posted last night, is instrumental music.

I'll do my best to be more descriptive in future.

Like the music I have shared here before, a high percentage of the music I love the most is lyrics-driven, which is not surprising since I am a poet and lyricist myself.

Steven Wilson (lead man of Porcupine Tree, and many other projects) and Dead Can Dance (Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry), the artists I've shared before, are known for their stellar musicianship, incredible voices, and their excellent, insightful, and often deeply profound lyrics.

But I also have a deep and abiding love for instrumental music, of all sorts, and that is what I tend to blast through the house when I need to get stuff done, especially all housework short of vacuuming. Music and vacuuming aren't a great mix.

I also tend to play instrumental music when writing, as I find lyrics too distracting when writing. This is especially true since, as a vocalist, I tend to love most those works that are fun to sing. So I start singing along, with or without an air-guitar accompaniment, which isn't exactly conducive to getting a lot of quality writing done.

So here I'll share one of my current favorite "get stuff done" albums, "Impressions," by Lunatic Soul, by way of my favorite song on the album, "Impression iii."

Lunatic Soul is the brainchild and semi-solo project of Mariusz Duda, who many Steemians, particularly those of Polish ancestry, may know better as the lead man, vocalist, lyricist and bass player of Poland's outstanding post-prog band Riverside, which is also one of my favorite bands.

Riverside started out more as prog metal, heavily influenced by Pink Floyd, Steven Wilson's Porcupine Tree and many others, and has since found their own unique style, greatly aided by the facility and broad musical interests of the four original band members. More on that in another post.

Lunatic Soul was meant to be more a nod to world music, with unusual instruments and time signatures, often with a Middle Eastern flavor, and was originally completely acoustic. The first album, "Lunatic Soul," was the story of a newly-departed soul, and his journey through an afterlife that he did not understand, could barely recognize, and had no idea how to traverse.

It is a beautiful and beautifully made album, which was instantly one of my favorites, and ranked alongside Jethro Tull's "Passion Play" and Pink Floyd's "Momentary Lapse of Reason" as among my favorite attempts at exploring those themes musically, largely due to Duda's insightful lyrics and his wonderfully interpretive singing style. I love his voice.

The later Lunatic Soul albums are continuations of a similar journey. "Lunatic Soul II" is also an excellent album, with great music and lyrics, but it was "Impressions" that grabbed me from the start and has yet to let me go.

While the entire album is strong, it is "Impression iii" that gets me every time. I absolutely love Duda's bass line in the latter section of this one, which is incredibly simple, in a Robert Fripp "Starless" sort of way, but also incredibly effective in context. And when the chanter comes in, since I'm of Scottish heritage and love bagpipes, it just sends my heart to the moon. I can't even express adequately how much I love this piece, and this album.

Duda does use his voice in this album, but does so more as Lisa Gerrard does in much of her work, where he is using his voice as an instrument, rather than singing lyrics. He has done so in all of the Lunatic Soul albums, and occasionally with Riverside as well, although in the others he has primarily sung lyrics, with his voice-as-instrument taking a background role.

In interviews and his own writings, he has referenced Lisa Gerrard and Dead Can Dance as influences in beginning the project, among many others.

The album consists of ten songs; "Impression i" through "Impression viii," all of which are instrumental, followed by remixes of "Gravestone Hill" and "Summerland," which appeared on the second and first Lunatic Soul albums, respectively.

I was initially not entirely pleased with the addition of the remixes, which seemed unnecessary add-ons in order to bring the release up to album length, but in the seven years I've been listening to the album, they have grown on me. I highly recommend this album, particularly for those who love intricate instrumental music.

Duda also holds a firm position of, along with Steven Wilson, as one of my favorite lyricists, which is no small feat for a man writing in a language not his own. I remain ever grateful that Riverside allowed Duda to sing in English, rather than in Polish, as my facility with speaking Polish is still lamentably sketchy at best. And clearly, it opened up a much wider fan base for them as a band, which has served them well from the start.

Like Marek, Duda has an innate sense of the nuance of the English language, which I have come to believe comes from the Polish language's strong correlations with Latin. But it still amazes me that both men have a much better grasp of the intricacies of English than do the majority of native-born American men, and women, I have known.

And, in Duda's case, that lays the groundwork for some truly remarkable and deeply moving lyrics, at least by my estimation. I hope that you enjoy his work as much as I do.

Later on, I'll share one of my favorite songs by Riverside.

As a writer, artist and musician, I am a strong believer in buying directly from the artist where possible, and so if you enjoy the music of Lunatic Soul, you can purchase it directly from Burning Shed which is based in the UK. I have been dealing with Burning Shed pretty much from their inception, and they are wonderful folks to deal with; the only time I ever had a problem with a shipment, they handled it immediately, and I recommend them highly.

Burning Shed was started by musicians, for musicians, so it is not surprising that musicians in the know choose them to represent their work, including Steven Wilson. Burning Shed was, in fact, started by Tim Bowness, lead man and band mate of Steven Wilson in no-man, the project Steven Wilson started in the same year he started Porcupine tree. Needless to say, Burning Shed also handles the work of Steven Wilson and his many and varied projects.

For Lunatic Soul's albums: https://burningshed.com/index.php?route=product/search&filter_name=lunatic%20soul&filter_category_id=66&filter_sub_category=true

Lunatic Soul's Official site: http://lunaticsoul.com/the-band/

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