Mariusz Duda (born 25 September 1975 in
Węgorzewo
Węgorzewo (until 1946 ; ) is a tourist town on the Angrapa River in northeastern Poland, within the historical region of Masuria. It is the seat of Węgorzewo County in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship and is located not far from the border ...
) is a Polish musician, composer, vocalist, lyricist, multi-instrumentalist, and music producer. Duda is best known for his performances with the rock band
Riverside, one of the most internationally recognized Polish bands, where he serves as the main composer, vocalist, bassist, guitarist, and lyricist. He is also the creator of the solo project
Lunatic Soul
Lunatic Soul is a progressive rock side-project founded by Riverside vocalist and bass guitarist Mariusz Duda in 2008. Originally conceived to allow him to explore genres outside of rock, the project was described by Duda in 2014 as progressive ...
and has released solo albums under his own name. With Riverside, he has received numerous awards, including Best Anthem at the Progressive Music Awards 2016.
Biography
Mariusz Duda was born on September 25, 1975, in
Węgorzewo
Węgorzewo (until 1946 ; ) is a tourist town on the Angrapa River in northeastern Poland, within the historical region of Masuria. It is the seat of Węgorzewo County in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship and is located not far from the border ...
. At the age of five, he began singing in a school band. When he was ten, his mother enrolled him in piano lessons. The exercises during his piano lessons were his first inspiration to start creating his own compositions.
In the second half of the 1980s, he became interested in electronic music, particularly artists such as
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the grou ...
,
Vangelis
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (, ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; , ), was a Greek musician, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He composed ...
,
Mike Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English retired musician, songwriter and producer best known for his debut studio album ''Tubular Bells'' (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. Though primarily a gu ...
, and
Jean-Michel Jarre
Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the Electronic music, electronic, Ambient music, ambient and New-age music, new-age genres, and is known for organising out ...
.
He became interested in progressive rock in high school. The first progressive album he came across was ''
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
''The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway'' is a studio double album and sixth overall by the English progressive rock band Genesis (band), Genesis. It was released on 22 November 1974 by Charisma Records, and is their last to feature original lead voc ...
'' by
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...
.
At the age of 15, together with his school friends, he formed a band called Decay. That was also the first time he took on the role of a singing bassist. The band played metal music inspired by groups such as
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. It was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
,
Testament
A testament is a document that the author has sworn to be true. In law it usually means last will and testament.
Testament or The Testament can also refer to:
Books
* ''Testament'' (comic book), a 2005 comic book
* ''Testament'', a thriller no ...
, and
Flotsam and Jetsam
In maritime law, flotsam'','' jetsam'','' lagan'','' and derelict are terms for various types of property lost or abandoned at sea. The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage. A ...
. With Decay, he played his first-ever concert at a rock festival in Węgorzewo in 1991. In September 1992, he joined the neo-progressive band Xanadu, initially as a keyboardist. After a few months of being active in both bands, Duda left Decay and focused solely on Xanadu.
After passing his final exams in 1994, he decided to take a gap year and concentrate on music. That same year, he performed with Xanadu at the
Jarocin Festival. The band also released a cassette titled ''Najdalszy brzeg'' (''The Farthest Shore''), which, due to poor distribution, failed to reach a wider audience.
In 1995, he began part-time law studies in
Toruń
Toruń is a city on the Vistula River in north-central Poland and a World Heritage Sites of Poland, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its population was 196,935 as of December 2021. Previously, it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–199 ...
. A year later, Xanadu recorded the album ''Wczorajsze ślady'' (''Traces of Yesterday''), but the material was never officially released. In 1996, the band Xanadu disbanded, and Duda became a cultural animator in Węgorzewo. He organized concerts, directed theatrical performances, and composed music for them. In 1997, he dropped out of university and returned to making music in various formations. He also worked as a sound technician, among other jobs, but seeing no prospects for a music career in his hometown, in 2000 he decided to move to Warsaw.
He worked at a car rental company, attended an advertising school, and after work played in a metal band called Hexen with his coworkers. The group had no plans for a professional career, but by sharing the same rehearsal space, in November 2001 he met
Piotr Kozieradzki, Jacek Melnicki, and
Piotr Grudziński, which led to him joining their lineup — and that lineup evolved into the band Riverside.)
Musical Projects
Riverside
Mariusz Duda is the vocalist, bassist, guitarist, main composer, and lyricist of the band. Riverside has performed at numerous international festivals such as
Arrow Rock and Bospop in the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
,
Masstival in
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
,
Baja Prog
Baja Prog is an annual progressive rock festival in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States ...
in
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
,
Masters of Rock in the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
,
Monsters of Rock
Monsters of Rock was a hard rock and heavy metal music festival. It was originally held annually in Castle Donington, England, from 1980 to 1996, taking place every year except 1989 and 1993. It later branched into other locations such as th ...
in
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
, and
Nearfest and ProgPower in the
USA
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...
. The Anno Domini High Definition Tour of 2009/2010 attracted nearly 20,000 fans worldwide.
Lunatic Soul
Mariusz Duda’s solo project, which was launched in 2008, emerged “from the need to explore other musical territories.” Under the name Lunatic Soul, seven albums have been released so far. As the project developed, the Lunatic Soul releases began to form a cycle that the artist himself called ''The Circle of Life and Death''. The entire cycle is intended to consist of eight albums.
Solo Career
2020–2021: Lockdown Trilogy
=''Lockdown Spaces''
=
In June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mariusz Duda released his first album under his own name, titled ''Lockdown Spaces.'' The album features electronic music based on synthesizers and samples and is almost entirely instrumental. There are no acoustic or bass guitar sounds on the album, and it was released without any prior announcement from the artist.
The album was nominated by the Polish Phonographic Academy for 2021 Fryderyk award in the "Electronic" category.
=''Claustrophobic Universe''
=
In April 2021, Mariusz Duda announced that he had decided to use the pandemic times to create a new musical trilogy and simultaneously revealed the release of a new album.
The material for ''Claustrophobic Universe'' was created between January and March 2021. The album was released on April 23 of the same year. The title refers to the confined life that societies had been living since the outbreak of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. The idea behind the trilogy was that the artist wanted to describe enclosed spaces through sound.
''Claustrophobic Universe'', like ''Lockdown Spaces'', is an album filled with electronic music. It draws from the classics of the genre, offering references to the works of Vangelis,
Klaus Schulze
Klaus Schulze (4 August 1947 – 26 April 2022) was a German electronic music pioneer, composer and musician. He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried and was a member of the Krautrock bands Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, and the Cosmic Jokers ...
, and Tangerine Dream, while also including tracks characterized by a modern approach to electronic music, such as short vocal samples and glitchy percussion.
An animated music video was created for the track ''Knock Lock''.
=''Interior Drawings''
=
In December 2021, the third and final part of the pandemic trilogy was released. Like the previous two albums, ''Interior Drawings'' is a record featuring minimalist, instrumental electronic music, enriched only by samples and fragmented use of vocals. Among the entire trilogy, this is the most melodic album, and conceptually, it offers the listener a different theme than those presented on the earlier parts of the trilogy.
As the second album in Mariusz Duda's solo work, the record was nominated for the Fryderyk Award by the Polish Phonographic Academy in the "Electronic" category.
=''2022: Let's Meet Outside''
=
The album was released in May 2022. The mini-album is not part of the so-called ''Lockdown Trilogy'', but it serves as a summary of two years of experimentation with electronic music. The premise of all the albums included in trilogy was to use only electronic instruments and vocals. However ''Let’s Meet Outside'' also features instruments such as bass guitar and electric guitar.
The albums from the pandemic trilogy were initially available only in digital formats or on cassette tapes. With the release of ''Let’s Meet Outside'', all four albums were also released on CD. The publisher of these four albums was the British label
Kscope
Kscope is an independent record label that is part of Snapper Music, and a sister-label of Peaceville. It is dedicated to artists in the progressive rock genre. The label has released albums by Steven Wilson and his projects Porcupine Tree (mo ...
.
=''2023: AFR AI D''
=
In November 2023, the fourth album by Mariusz Duda released under his own name was published. The over 40-minute concept album is inspired by the theme of fear of artificial intelligence—though not exclusively.
The album is dominated by electronic music that leans strongly toward rock, and it also features guitar solos. Mariusz Duda played all the instruments himself, except for the electric guitar, which was performed by guest musician Mateusz Owczarek from
Lion Shepherd.
The album was promoted by four singles: ''Embracing The Unknown'', ''Bots' Party'', ''I Love To Chat With You'' and ''Good Morning Fearmongering''. Music videos were created for the tracks ''Bots' Party'' and ''I Love To Chat With You''.
For the third time in Mariusz Duda’s solo career, the album was nominated for Fryderyk Award by the Polish Phonographic Academy in the "Electronic" category.
Artistic Style
Riverside
Riverside is commonly categorized as a representative of
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
or
progressive metal
Progressive metal (often shortened to prog metal) is a broad fusion music genre melding heavy metal music, heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified electric guitar, guitar-driven sound of the former with t ...
. The band has performed concerts and toured alongside groups associated with this genre, such as
Opeth
Opeth is a Swedish progressive metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1990. The band incorporates folk music, folk, blues, classical music, classical, and jazz elements into its usually lengthy compositions, as well as strong influences from deat ...
,
Anathema
The word anathema has two main meanings. One is to describe that something or someone is being hated or avoided. The other refers to a formal excommunication by a Christian denomination, church. These meanings come from the New Testament, where a ...
and
Dream Theater
Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 in Boston, Massachusetts. The band comprises John Petrucci (guitar), John Myung (bass), Mike Portnoy (drums), James LaBrie (vocals) and Jordan Rudess (keyboards).
Dream Theat ...
. However, Duda challenges this categorization of the band’s work.
Lunatic Soul
Lunatic Soul is a fully original and solo project by Mariusz Duda. This is also emphasized by the name itself, whose number of letters corresponds to the number of letters in the musician’s first and last name. A distinctive feature of Lunatic Soul’s music is the absence of guitar in the compositions.
In terms of style, Duda’s solo project escapes standard classifications. Reviewers describe Lunatic Soul’s compositions as “very oriental, trance-like, eclectic, even genre-transcending variations on the overall themes of rock, electronic, and folk music.” They also emphasize Duda’s artistic vision, a constant element of which is “the search for unconventional sounds, arrangement nuances and details, as well as experimenting with sound in the realm of broadly understood electronic music, ambient, and trip hop.”
Mariusz Duda
The albums released under the musician's own name differ from the releases of his primary band Riverside and his solo project Lunatic Soul. The music, largely based on minimalist electronics and featuring only a small number of vocal parts, significantly deviates from the song-oriented rock and folk convention presented by the other projects. Despite the considerably greater popularity of both Riverside and Lunatic Soul recordings, the composer himself emphasizes that his “third musical world” is equally important to him.
Discography
Solo
* ''Lockdown Spaces'' (2020)
* ''Claustrophobic Universe'' (2021)
* ''Interior Drawings'' (2021)
* ''Let's Meet Outside'' (EP, 2022)
* ''Intervallum'' (EP, 2022)
* ''AFR AI D'' (2023)
with Riverside
* ''
Out of Myself'' (2003)
* ''
Second Life Syndrome'' (2005)
* ''
Rapid Eye Movement'' (2007)
* ''
Anno Domini High Definition
''Anno Domini High Definition'' is the fourth studio album by Polish progressive rock band Riverside and also the first full-length Riverside album that is separate from the Reality Dream suite. The album was released in Poland on Friday 19 June ...
'' (2009)
* ''
Shrine of New Generation Slaves'' (2013)
* ''
Love, Fear and the Time Machine'' (2015)
* ''
Wasteland'' (2018)
* ''
ID.Entity'' (2023)
as Lunatic Soul
* ''
Lunatic Soul
Lunatic Soul is a progressive rock side-project founded by Riverside vocalist and bass guitarist Mariusz Duda in 2008. Originally conceived to allow him to explore genres outside of rock, the project was described by Duda in 2014 as progressive ...
'' (2008)
* ''
Lunatic Soul II'' (2010)
* ''
Impressions
An impression is the overall effect of something.
Impression or impressions may also refer to:
Biology
* Colic impression, a feature of the gall bladder
* Duodenal impression, medial to the renal impression
* Gastric impression, a feature of th ...
'' (2011)
* ''
Walking on a Flashlight Beam'' (2014)
* ''
Fractured'' (2017)
* ''
Under the Fragmented Sky'' (2018)
* ''
Through Shaded Woods'' (2020)
with Meller Gołyźniak Duda
* ''Breaking Habits'' (2016)
* ''Live'' (2018)
Guest appearances
*
Indukti – ''
S.U.S.A.R.'' (2004; guest vocals on "Freder", "Cold Inside…I", "Shade")
* Amarok – ''Metanoia'' (2004; guest vocals on "Canticle", "Rules", "Look Around", "Come What May", "The Moment", "The Day After…"); ''Hunt'' (2017; guest vocals and co-writing credits on one track)
* "The Old Peace" (2014; vocals, guitars, and co-writing with Steven Wilson)
*
iamthemorning – ''
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Ligh ...
'' (2016; guest vocals on "Lighthouse")
References
*
External links
Lunatic Soul website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duda, Mariusz
Living people
Polish heavy metal bass guitarists
Progressive metal guitarists
Progressive metal bass guitarists
Mystic Production artists
Polish heavy metal singers
Polish rock singers
Polish keyboardists
English-language singers from Poland
1975 births
Polish lyricists
21st-century Polish male singers
21st-century Polish singers
Polish male bass guitarists
21st-century bass guitarists
Polish male guitarists