Caduceus - Viduramžiai

 

Hello, readers. Has been another long lapse, my apologies again. Free time is quite hard to come by for me in such a weird year. Figured since the holidays are coming up and since the solstice has arrived, I'd share in the spirit of giving by providing a new upload for everyone. Still much more to post, but being that this release is among the most legendary and elusive recordings in maybe the whole genre of dungeon synth, it's about time it got put it out there.

If anyone was unaware, the last Caduceus tape Middle Ages was revealed to be little more than a collection of tracker songs from the 90s that were stolen and released as Caduceus' own music. Went a very long time before anyone noticed, but thanks to some keen ears among the tracker-users in the DS genre today, all has been revealed. You can read more about this here.

Viduramžiai is the infamously impossible to find second 'release' from Caduceus released in 1998, apparently only circulated among his own circle of peers in Lithunia back in the day, with many being quite withholding of information about this. But now here it is, a 40 minute neoclassical dungeon synth monster of cinematic composition and dusty dungeon romanticism. This rip was provided to the blog by a well trusted confidant (who will remain nameless unless they wish to be named) with a great deal of insider info. Some very slight editing has been made to side A to improve audio quality, but this diminishes nothing from the base sound. Alas, Viduramžiai is another case of tracker .mod file theft. While posed as two compositions comprised of smaller movements, the tracks within are also stolen from tracker music artists without their knowledge. So far among the Excavators, we've identified one track within this tape as being 'Kingdom Skies' by the artist Jase. This track appears at the 15 minute mark on side A. Being that Middle Ages was entirely stolen and that we've already ID'd one stolen track here, it's safe to assume that the rest are also stolen. Very unfortunate that these original artists never got the proper credit for their music which is now lauded as some of the best 'old school DS' in the genre, but it's good that we can now begin to appreciate the contributions of artists that we would otherwise be unaware of. If you're able to identify any other songs within this tape, please email me.

Now, scandals aside, this is another monumental release of extremely well composed fantasy music that would fit squarely into the cheese of 80s and 90s sword & sorcery films (if only!) Sweeping orchestration, complex percussion, emotional crescendos, atmospheric dark synthesizers, it's all here. In fact, this might be outside of the taste of many DS minimalists who prefer the somber straightforward stylings of many modern bedroom projects, but for many hi-fi fans or OST listeners, you'll certainly love this. If you want an even higher fidelity taste of similar music, browse through the medieval and classical tags on sites such as Mod Archive wherein many of the true Middle Ages originals are available, including 'Kingdom Skies' from this tape.

So, take it as it is. Enjoy the music that is here and keep in mind the true artists behind these compositions. I guess we could say thanks in a sense for the timeline where this whole ordeal has led us to discovering or rediscovering the demo scene tracker music history of the 90s. It's terribly unfortunate that this music comes to us through the unveiling of theft. Even in the modern day we've seen similar scenarios in the genre where various tracks or even whole albums are stolen and labeled as another artist's music. Just goes to show you, nothing stays hidden for too long.

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Sole Occidente - Ye Last Journey of Mine

Hello again, readers and followers. It's been some months since the last post, but hopefully people are still checking in from time to time. Still have quite a backlog to get through, so the blog won't die off anytime soon. I have lots of priorities these days, but I wanted to squeeze in another post since everyone's stuck at home lately. Some new (old) dungeon synth can hopefully ease the mind. Hope you're all well.

Instead of the usual tape rip, here we have a CDR of the only album from Ukranian artist Sole Occidente. This was released in 2003 on OMS Records, who put out some other underrated DS albums back in the early 00s like some of the Old Monk's Saga material and the much overlooked Silentium/AR split. Sole Occidente is work of Duke Amduscias, Incubus (comma included) who also fronted the black metal project Ignis Nocturnum which produced a single tape release 5 years before this SO album. This upload was made possible by a longtime patron of the blog whose knowledge and resources are always bountiful. Thank you, again.

The overall sound of this album is reminiscent of the very early Bandcamp era of dungeon synth, with digitized instruments creating thoughtful and ambitious compositions coming from a very grand personal fantasy world. I know I've heard these particular instruments before, but I can't quite put my finger on where. It's a very string heavy album which at times reminds me of Darkstroll, a classic from this early BC era (I highly recommend the compilation Sounds of the Taiga on Dungeon Lore Foundation, one of my favorites). The moods on this album recreate a varied and long adventure for the listener, with some tracks like the opener giving a very verdant and bright mental image while others like "Ye Crying of Lilith" painting a much darker and dreary sort of gothic atmosphere. As I said before, the strings here are always at the forefront in various forms: harps, violins, piano, cello, even harpsichord in a few places. While each track may intend a different image mood, the compositions are always driving forward with lots going on. You don't get much of a break here as the pace stays fairly consistent throughout, only slowing down at times when focusing in on creating a darker atmosphere. With 13 tracks in total, things do tend to blend together a bit in places since you're mostly getting the same instruments in each track with a similar pace. Two tracks that really stand out to me are "Ye Crying of Lilith", which has a strong gothic tone and serves as something of a dark respite during the surrounding upbeat and adventurous tracks, and the track "Ye Circle of Ye Fate". Ye Circle features a kind of Asian sounding flute tone, which is a new and welcome element, and there's something about the composition that reminds of Steve Reich. I'm not versed in music theory so I can't explain this very well, but there's just something about the key that this is written in or the range of notes being reached that gives me a modernist vibe. Great track.

Overall, there's lots here to catch your attention. You can hone in on one instrument at a time and follow an interesting melody or take it all in its in digital grandeur. That said, something about the similar pacing per track and the repeated instrument patch usage makes things blend together at times, but the tracks that do mix it up really stand out. I can definitely see this being a great background RPG album.

And here ye have ye download for ye listening pleasure:

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