Got It Taped
Forget progressive metal and folk, Riverside’s Mariusz Duda has gone back to his favourite childhood cassettes on his new solo album, Claustrophobic Universe. Released less than six months after Lunatic Soul’s rustic Through Shaded Woods, it’s packed with minimalist electronic instrumentals that are a world away from his other projects. He tells Prog the story behind it.
Words: Rich Wilson Images: Tomasz Pulsakowski
“[When I was a kid] I would be buying tapes by Obituary, Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Mike Oldfield, Kraftwerk and Carcass. It was crazy.”
For certain musicians, an enforced period of seclusion can provide the space and time needed to reach into the soul and create something magical. Mariusz Duda, Riverside frontman and the driving force behind Lunatic Soul, took that imposed opportunity to write and record deliberately provocative solo albums, which will form part of the yet-to-be-completed ‘lockdown trilogy’.
“Having the time to be more creative is one of the bright sides of the pandemic,” says Duda from his home in Poland. “It makes me sad that musicians are struggling right now and having a really hard time. For instance, if you’re a musician who is connected with other composers or if you’re a session musician, then that’s really devastating. But if you’re an artist who can close himself away in the studio and create something new, it’s almost like paradise. You can do whatever you want. When Riverside stopped playing shows, I had more time. We did the new Lunatic Soul recording and after that, I needed a change. So, this became the beginning of a new adventure for me and now already there’s a second solo album.”
Claustrophobic
Universeis out now.