Mariusz Duda - AFR AI D (2023) [Hi-Res]

I love coming up with different music stories. I love creating different music worlds. Preferably, with their own style and personality.

Those different music worlds are like planets, each with a different ecosystem, each with different rules. Thanks to that variety, I can visit them in whatever order, whenever I need to. And let them go on and thrive.

One of those planets is called Riverside. Another one - Lunatic Soul. And then there’s the third planet, which I have been visiting most often in this decade. I haven’t given it any particular name because here is where I wanted to be myself from years ago. That kid who, with his eyes closed and a smile on his face, listened on and on to instrumental stories told by such artists as Vangelis, Tangerine Dream or Mike Oldfield.

The inspiration for the new story is the currently prevalent fear of artificial intelligence gradually appearing in our lives, which spread in the media in 2023 and manifested itself with recurring questions, “Will artificial intelligence take over our jobs?”, “Will artificial intelligence eventually take control over us?”

Personally, I am sceptical of the Cassandrian visions, which is reflected in the title “Why So Serious, Cassandra?” But reading all those articles and listening to all kinds of podcasts made me realise that it’s a great idea for an album. Especially an album which would fit into a music world connected with… electronica.

Luckily, I had already managed to create a world like that a few years ago.

The basic premise of the electronic project called Mariusz Duda is that I play mostly electronic instruments here. Another one is a specific music minimalism which gives space for individual interpretation.

On the new album, “AFR AI D”, the minimalism (known for example from the pandemic trilogy) has been replaced with slightly more intricate layers, due to the use of different kinds of processed voices and distorted vocal samples, which obviously symbolise the AI, and electric guitars, which in this case represent the human factor.

As it is an album about fear, I wanted the music to have an undercurrent of anxiety. However, I didn’t want it to turn into a celebration of fear and anxiety (even if this is what might be inferred from the graphic design of the album). The main message of the record is encoded in the title of the first track: taming our nightmares.

The album begins with dark vocalisations reflecting our fears. It ends with delicate guitar sounds, which symbolise our success at taming those fears. The taming process is also symbolised by all the melodic fragments in each composition. Finally, we achieve silence and comfort.

Everyone is afraid of something. Especially in these hard and uncertain times. Everyone struggles with their demons. With their fears. We probably won’t get rid of them. But we can learn to live with them. We can distance ourselves from them. We can also make them stop dominating our lives.

This is what “AFR AI D” is mostly about. About taming our nightmares.

MD