It hasn't been an easy year for Mariusz Duda, mastermind of Lunatic Soul: he has lost his long-time Riverside band member and friend, Piotr Grudzinski, and his father briefly afterwards. In the shade of recent events, Mariusz has started working on his fifth Lunatic Soul studio album, and according to Mariusz, this new album will be different than anything he has done before.

Mariusz has posted the following statement last month: "Life has slowed down. My friend died suddenly 3 months ago; just as suddenly 2 weeks ago my father passed away. He wasn't ill. I found out about it when I was down with a cold myself, fighting off a 38 degree fever and planning a trip to my home town, Węgorzewo, 'because I don't have any gigs scheduled for this year so I can be home more often.' I went there sooner than I'd planned. Sooner but it was too late anyway. I buried my father on May 6th at a cemetery in Węgorzewo. After the funeral I stayed in my home town for a week, walked along the shortcuts I knew from my childhood, re-discovered nooks and corners, recalled dusty memories. For the first time in years I was there for so many days...

"Contrarily to what you might expect, instead of a complete breakdown, I feel my skin thickening, I sense the growing resilience and awareness that I don't have to rush any more. My professional plans are and will continue to be realised. And there are quite a lot of them so I thought I would write them down now and arrange them in my head. But without pressure, calmly and in inner silence.

"At the moment together with my band colleagues, we're finishing the authorisation of Riverside biography written by Maurycy Nowakowski, which will be published towards the end of this year. I've almost finished writing lyrics for a new music project I'm co-creating with my friends, Maciej Meller and Maciej Gołyźniak, where I play the bass and sing, and whose release date is scheduled for the autumn. I'm also finalising the logistics behind this year's Riverside releases; there will be two of them, the first is a well known album in 5.1 surround version and the second is a compilation of instrumental tracks - more about it in separate news on the band's website. But most of all, I'm writing new music which will probably make it to a new Lunatic Soul album and perhaps to a completely new release, different from what I've done before.

"My home town has changed. It's prettier. It's younger. I'm starting to touch the things I have been writing about so much on my albums, trying to go back in time 30 years and bring them all back in my memory. I'm experiencing them, inhaling and exhaling the air, I'm closing my eyes and stopping. It's not easy, the waves are coming and going, but I feel I'm not on the edge of a precipice any more, I'm not torn inside. I do feel sadness and longing but at the same time calmness and strength, and a wealth of possibilities. This year has not been spoiling me but I will not let it break me. Life has slowed down. And gained meaning."

Source:	facebook.com
Band profile:	Lunatic Soul