Poland is home to Europe’s largest primeval forest, the Bialowieza forest, an ecosystem largely untouched since the last ice age and an Unesco world heritage site. Neither the forest’s uniqueness nor its status did hinder the ruling populist, right-wing governing party of Poland, the Law and Justice party, to sanction logging in the forest under the pretence of wanting to preserve it. Luckily, after a legal battle, the European Court of Justice ordered an end to the logging. Poland’s government first defied the order, but has since given in – the fines they had to pay for every day that the logging continued were just too much. But some damage had already been done. If you are interested, you can read more about the subject here.

Mariusz Duda, bassist and vocalist in prog-rock band Riverside, has recently released a forest-themed album with his solo project Lunatic Soul, and since Duda is from Poland, I thought this was an opportunity to remind you and myself of the Bialowieza forest and of the manifold threats populist right-wing governments present to the achievements of civilization in general and the environment in particular; not just in Poland, but everywhere.

Lunatic Soul is a side project of Duda’s and as such serves as a place to explore music that is different in character to the music produced by his main band. And he has done quite some exploring already. Lunatic Soul released their first album in 2008. Through Shaded Woods, the album at hand, is LP number seven. While previous works were characterized by the heavy use of electronics, the new album, befitting its nature theme, doesn’t employ any – which doesn’t mean that there is no programming. This time, Duda turned his musical explorations to Scandinavian and Slavic folk, referencing, as can be seen on Lunatic Soul’s homepage, bands like Heilung and Wardruna. Moreover, for the first time, Duda’s plays all instruments himself.

Through Shaded Woods has a runtime of roughly forty minutes, with the deluxe edition including a second CD and about 35 more minutes of music. I will concentrate on the main CD, containing six tracks, since the additional one is of a slightly different character, including electronics, and doesn’t feel entirely part of the initial concept.

The album opens with Navvie, a track that fulfils almost all expectations you might have of something calling itself dark folk. The music, composed of percussion, bell sounds, acoustic guitars and deep, shamanic-sounding vocals, is captivating, possessing a meditation-inducing power. The video to the track is likewise excellent and absolutely worth seeing, since it offers a perfect combination of sound, pictures and modern dance performance.

But already with track number two, The Passage, the album progresses in a direction that does not appeal to me. The mood becomes much lighter; the atmosphere, established by the first track, is watered down, especially due to the clean vocals. Title track Through Shaded Woods and Oblivion, tracks number three and four, do return to ritualistic sounds, but the album ends with The Fountain on a very light and overly romantic note.

There is no lack of bands trying to hop on the dark folk waggon that has been gaining more and more traction, but rare are the acts that strife for authenticity and that are as thoroughly researched as the ones mentioned above. Through Shaded Woods does possess a “folkish” character, but mostly the album’s songs are melancholic, and towards the end rather sentimental, musings of a personal nature. While that is absolutely fine all by itself, the compositions stand no comparison to the much more ambitious musical endeavours of bands like Heilung or Wardruna.

Having expected something else, I must say that I was rather disappointed with Through Shaded Woods. Slavic folk offers a well of inspiration, musically, linguistically and story-wise, which so far remains largely unexplored by bands in the rock and metal genre – with some honourable exceptions. To me, this feels like an opportunity missed.

(6.5/10 Slavica)

https://www.facebook.com/lunaticsoulband

https://kscopemusic.bandcamp.com/album/through-shaded-woods-deluxe-edition