Earlier in 2026, Mariusz Duda stunned everyone in the prog community by walking away from Polish progmeisters, Riverside, and as he was co-founder, vocalist, bassist and main songwriter, it effectively spelt the end of a fine band. So his creative energies are being fully channelled into another direction, only now it’s on a full time basis.
It’s well known Mariusz Duda wasn’t always happy being considered just a prog musician, believing he had more to offer than just this, so this led to Lunatic Soul coming into being in 2008, originally as a vehicle for Duda to explore and create new musical possibilities outside of Riverside, giving him a wider scope to pursue his more esoteric creative juices and widen his skill set, with the resulting work sometimes being a little darker and haunting, incorporating elements of Nordic folk, ambient and prog, and usually more involved and creative compared to what Riverside produced.
Transition II is the ninth album from Lunatic Soul and is, for the most part instrumental, though vocals appear on the title track, with Duda solely responsible for the music, playing all the instruments used, demonstrating again he’s a very talented and creative composer and, on this album, he takes the listener through four pieces of music, including the twenty-three-minute long title track.
‘Realm of the Weeping Willows‘ opens up, and the first few minutes are riff heavy, with the kind of bass work Riverside fans will recognise, before becoming quieter with good use of acoustic guitar. Duda’s voice can be heard but it wasn’t clear if he was singing. The two shorter pieces, ‘Vyraj‘, which is the most accessible track, and ‘Hylophobia‘ .. an irrational fear of forests, trees, etc, .. revolve mainly around guitar, bass and drums, with the occasional synth on ‘Vyraj‘. Both tracks feature rhythmic riffs played on guitar and bass against a strong percussive backdrop.
‘Transition II‘, a new piece initiated while recording Through Shaded Woods, and finished earlier in 2026, was the only track on the album not to evoke an image of Riverside, and it has the feel of a long track which has been composed of several shorter pieces put together. There are hints of Through Shaded Woods on this track, with images of lush woodlands and forest creatures coming to mind through the hypnotic effect created through the music, and even though it loses its way slightly in the middle, there’s still more than enough to keep the listener focused to the very end.
Alongside Steven Wilson, Mariusz Duda is a purveyor of gorgeous melancholy in the way he creates ambience and uses sound, and he deserves to be spoken of in the same breath, as both are multi-instrumentalist composers continually searching for something different.
