It is impossible for me to sit still while this album plays, and I mean that quite literally. And there is no hesitation - right from the first note the album kicks into high gear, plugging straight into that ancient part of the brain that is connected to rhythm, pulse, and heartbeat. The eastern Slavic influence gives a weightiness to the the tracks that the music of the early LS albums did not possess. The early albums tended towards ambience with some heavy moments worked in but this album is pure joyous folk-rock. The seventh Lunatic Soul album, Through Shaded Woods, heralds a return to the acoustic folk-themed feel of the first three albums, but it follows a different path. With the fourth album, the project shifted to something sparser, electronic, and song-driven rather than atmospheric, but even so, hints of that primal heart sneaked through. The earlier albums ( LS I, II, and Impressions ) weren’t strictly folk-driven, but did have a rich, vaguely eastern feel that served much the same purpose. That music dug in more deeply than anything had before, finding a Lunatic Soul-shaped space inside me I didn’t even know was empty. I was too young to understand it in terms of music appreciation, but it was the beginning, and eventually led to an abiding love of folk-rock. The great choruses and rich folk melodies hit some deep spot in me that must have been there from the beginning.

That soundtrack was Doctor Zhivago, and I was captivated by Maurice Jarre’s dark, orchestral take on old Slavic traditional music (and the pomp of Russian classical). I remember the first movie soundtrack that had an impact on me, lingering long after I watched the movie.

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