Breaking The Habit

After releasing four solo albums under his own name, Riverside frontman Mariusz Duda has turned his attention back to Lunatic Soul. He's rightly proud of The World Under Unsun, an ambitious new double album that he refers to as his “calling card”, but could it spell the end of this particular outlet? He tells Prog why he's gone big and bold on his eighth release under the LS banner and reveals his plans for the future.

- Jeremy Allen

By the time this article hits the newsstands, Mariusz Duda will be 50. Understandably, he's in a reflective mood. The Polish musician and singer hasn’t quite hit his half-century when Prog speaks to him on the phone at a hotel on the Polish-German border, although he’s already celebrating the milestone with some pamper time at a health farm courtesy of his partner.

“My wife took me to the spa... yay,” he reveals, somewhat deadpan. “So, I’m just between one massage and another. Yesterday, I had a Thai massage, which means now that all of the parts of my body are in pain, so I’m not so sure if it was a great idea. This is the kind of place where mainly German people over 70 go, so I'm probably preparing for my future years.”

Duda deserves to celebrate another landmark, too. Lunatic Soul — which has run alongside progressive rock giants Riverside (of which he’s the mainman) for the last 17 years — has reached a conclusion of sorts. The World Under Unsun, the eighth and possibly last Lunatic Soul album, is released at the end of October, drawing his self-mythologising circle of life and death cycle to a close. As Duda points out, there’s plenty of symmetry so far in his discography.

“This album is my 20th album, including eight with Riverside, eight with Lunatic Soul and four electronic releases under my own name. So that’s the threshold already. I guess that’s why the lyrics on The World Under Unsun are about changing, about abandoning something that was in the past and moving forwards.”

A moment of existential doubt seems to take him: "I feel that I have to change something, but how many years do I have left? Maybe two decades, tops! I’m not as healthy as Paul McCartney and Roger Waters who are still full of fire at the age of 80-something. I don't know if I will be as healthy at that age, but I definitely want to take care of my future with less stress."

Can we expect more Lunatic Soul, then?