Music from the Moonstruck: Lunatic Soul

“Put all your soul into it, play the way you feel!" Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin



So said once, the greatest musician hailing from Poland. 160 years later, came along Mariusz Duda from the same lands, another lunatic soul who dreamed and played the way he felt, spiced up with melancholy and despair. You may probably take a guess on what it is like to be insane at mind. How about going one step further, and feeling lunatic, lunatic at soul..? Regardless of the instruments, the language or the limbs which bring along the music; when listening to Lunatic Soul, you will experience and hear the tales and songs of rebirth fast-forward. Lunatic Soul is what Chopin would play if he was alive today.


Lunatic Soul voyages around that inert feeling of rebirth, that we have seen this all and that we are swirling leaves between stitched lives, circling between death and life, between dawn and dusk. Yet we fail to recall our earlier days, our earlier selves. Each day, a new beginning is afoot, recreation is in process from the very water and light which is the source of life. And every night, the light is dimmed and the water is muddled with our experience and thoughts. This is a daily ritual to celebrate the living and mourn the dead.


A flock of cells as the first signs of life wiggling in crystal clear water, "A Near Life Exprience". Every day, Mother Earth gives birth to the Sun. The sun wakes up, cries out and rises like a new born child with a blast of energy. An explosion occurs in the sky every morning, mornings are the Big Bangs of our day and the spring of our lives.  This is followed by noon, when the Sun hangs like a lantern from the sky. The heat reaches its maximum, in the exact same way our minds reach the highest in our youth, when we believe that we are capable of everything, moving mountains aside. Look around, you will see the "Summerland", with fluxes of euphoria and joy flooding at the height of our neck. Stallions running thirsty in endless deserts and horizons scorched with eternal heat. 


Then comes the fall of life; 

"I know we're passing by
See the shadows of our own
Apart from where we are
We still believe
And raise our hopes
We're locked up alone
Going nowhere
Waiting for the dawn"






You feel the cold breeze, the light dims and the unanswered questions become a burden on our shoulders. It is twilight, almost time to go home, playgrounds are abandoned, souls "Adrift". Entropy has been sitting at the corner and laughing in a sneaky way. In the time of the winter, the cracks in the desert becomes cracks on our hands. We look back, realizing "The Final Truth", asking what will survive of the day, in remembrance of those who left and with memories they left with us. Sun goes hiding, reminding of its destiny billions of years away. Mother earth is not that cold-blooded as she sounds though, she leaves us with the lights of the Moon, the guiding star for the content. 


We keep staring at him, find a smile on his face, we confide in him, telling him all our secrets. The moon becomes our imaginary friend. The "Transition" begins.  Aristotle believed that the full Moon induced insanity in men, believing that the brain, which is mostly water, would be affected by the Moon and its power over the tides. Derived from Late Latin word, "lunaticus", the meaning of lunatic is in fact, "of the Moon" or, "moonstruck". The Moon strikes us into Schizophrenia, we befriend him, we pour our days, lives and all the seasons into Moon. Sweating out from anxiety, we dig a deep hole in the backyard and bury all the bulk. The moon watches and understands, as he is our only friend. As the memories are poured into the hole, we leave away all the burden and become lighter.

"I don't know what I become
Floating softly
Flying up
Like there's no more gravity
Body and mind
Different things"

Our body is disconnected, the soul moves out and flies out to the Moon, its final destination. The music of this ritual plays at the background of every day and every life. This is the story of man turning from water, soil and light into life, evaporating to air and reaching the Moon. When all is forgotten and all joy and pain is evened out, another morning starts, with explosions and storms, the rain showering over bare and empty soils and light is - let be - again.