Compendium - Ensemble MCMLXCV

 

Greetings, again. After over a year of inactivity, I've come back with quite the stash of obscure music to share once again. My ripping equipment is in working condition again, so I've been able to get quite a lot digitalized. Still a handful of tapes to go, but everything I have is currently uploaded and is awaiting a write-up, so I don't have a whole lot of excuse for delay now. Many people have emailed pointing out that a good portion of old download links are dead. I've moved everything to google drive which should stay up for a long time. I've also swapped out the Ashmadai rip with the cut-off final track to a new rip from a friend of mine. I played with the mix a bit so it's not so panned to the right and a bit louder. It was still a low mix tape to begin with, but hopefully this makes it a little brighter. Anyway, please enjoy any old stuff you've missed out on due to inactive links. I think the majority of my rips have been uploaded to youtube, as well. I'm sure posts ahead will make their way over eventually. Glad to be back!

I wanted to bring this tape up first thing coming off of my hiatus since it may be my favorite tape so far on this blog. Compendium's Ensemble MCMLXCV comes from the legendary Dark Age Productions, released in 1995 during the label's heyday. Ensemble MCMLXCV is lovely EP/mini-album of six tracks making a total of around 20 minutes. I should note that this tape isn't entirely dungeon synth proper. There's a strong element of gothic/neoclassical piano for the bulk of the tape but keyboards, acoustic guitar, cello, and other instruments are woven in to create a very lush and dark romantic atmosphere. I'm a pretty big fan of this kind of atmosphere relating to neoclassical darkwave, so fans of the genre will surely love this. The music is largely instrumental, though the first and last track feature very beautiful female vocal harmonies. If you're not into the whole gothic piano piano thing as much, old-school dungeon synth fans will get their cheesy synth thirst slaked with the synth panflute on the track "The Falls of Caledonia" and the baroque synth harpsichord on "The Dark Enlightened". It's hard for me to pick a favorite out of these, but I'm partial to the first track "Dancing in the Mist". In some ways reminds me of the piano solo tracks of Theatre of Tragedy. A very beautiful tape that's worth the time of anyone into darker piano music or dungeon synth.

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Cernunnos Woods - Immrama

Well, it's certainly been a while, but I'm finally back to posting. I currently have about thirteen more releases to post, but I'm always searching for more. What I was previously using to rip tapes is giving me a good amount of feedback now and I can't seem to get it sounding right even with head cleaning, so I'm stuck with posting reader submissions or CD rips in the meantime. I'll try to get something working soon since I do have a backlog of tapes to rip. I also haven't checked this email account in quite some time and I've been alerted that a few of the upload links are dead. I'll be re-uploading whatever has died, so try downloading them again tonight or tomorrow. I also have a better rip of the Ashmadai tape I'll be uploading soon. The last track was cut off on my copy, so those files that have been spreading around aren't complete (though it's just the end of the track that's missing, it's mostly all there).

For my return, I'm posting a promo tape rip from one of my favorite dungeon synth artists, Cernunnos Woods. Big thanks to the guy who ripped this for me. Immrama was a promo tape featuring three tracks that were to be seen on the Awaken the Empire of Dark Wood full length released on CMI sub-label Cruel Moon International in 1996. These versions here should be considered demos, later being reworked a bit and properly mastered for the album.The first track here, "Enchantment to the Empire of Stone" would come to be named "Dark and Ancient Visions". It's the same length as the album track, though this one trails off with some ocean sounds, so a little less DS, a little more waves. The second track, "Loch Dirge", didn't make it onto the full length, but it's a great one, melancholic and triumphant. The third track, "Into Glory... We Ride", wasn't really changed in any noticeable way for the full-length, save for better mastering. While these promo tracks are technically featured on the Forest Anthology compilation that was released in 2016, the tracks on that release that were labeled as being from this tape aren't actually the same, save for the last track. The Immrama track on the FA comp is closer to the album version and features the same name. The second track labeled as "Cad Goddeu (The Battle of the Tress" on FA is actually not "Loch Dirge" at all, it's a rougher mix of the actual album track "Cad Goddeu". "Into Glory... We Ride" however remains the same across all three releases. If the tracks on the compilation were the same as the tracks on this tape, I wouldn't really have a reason to upload this, but luckily we get some nice demos here and the unheard "Loch Dirge" track. If anything, even if the tracks were the same, this was worth uploading for the cover art alone, made by Bard on one his high school's computers. Some classic DS clip art. A fun little promo from a great artist.

Definitely check out the Forest Anthology compilation and everything else on Bard's legendary Dark Age Productions label, one of the classics from the 90s now active again and releasing more classic dungeon music.

Cernunnos Woods
Dark Age Productions


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Atropos - Amorte

Huge thanks to my Russian and Italian comrades for this rip. I've been meaning to purchase this tape for some time, but before I did I actually received the rip for this along with a great insert scan from the artist himself, passed along to me by a Russian friend who is always a big help with getting some obscure stuff. This is the first tape by the duo Atropos. Atropos was active in the later half of the nineties as a smaller project of Borys Catelani, founder of the Agipunk and Tetanus labels and front-man of the death doom band Forgotten Kadath and guitarist for the crust band Giuda, and Maurizio Guccini, instrumentalist for Forgotten Kadath. As far as I'm aware, Atropos released four tapes between 1995 and 1998, two being splits, one with Forgotten Kadath and another with Myricae, the other full length tape being posted here eventually! If anyone has either of the two splits, I'd love to hear them.

Amorte is Atropos first release from 1995 and to me is definitely the weaker of the main two releases, but that's not say this one isn't without its merits. The tape opens with Clotho, a fairly lighthearted short song with a deep synth bass pad, playful synthesized pan flute, and live recorder playing (off key at a few points). Reminds me a bit of Bacchia Neraida's or Zweilicht's flute playing. After this brief track, we have Lachesis, a multifaceted song that's almost set up in separate phases. The recorder continues on in a simple melody reminiscent of a campy fantasy movie opening. Eventually the song breaks down and gets darker and incorporates some raspy whispered vocals. Again the song mutates an turns to a church organ as the darkness increases before transforming back to a lighter tone recalling the beginning of the track. The contrast between the simplicity of the first and track and this near twelve minute fantasy journey is nice and the variation keeps you attentive. An odd percussion track follows that is rather sloppy in timing. Not too big on this track, almost seems like its a pallet cleanser after the evolving Lachesis. The A side finishes off with Imago, a rather short folk-ish transition song that brings in acoustic guitar, probably the prettiest song on the tape.

The B side picks up where Lachesis left off, cutting the lighter feel off and diving right back into a slow building darkness with many elements of the previous epic, church organs and whispers included. A tolling bell at the track's end leads us to the outro Giorni... which in my opinion is the creepiest song on the tape. A period of silence, and we're given a hidden black metal acoustic synth burst outro complete with some falsetto wail screams. A fun way to end everything.

Overall, Amorte is enjoyable but it feels like the duo is still kind of getting their ideas together to create something larger. I don't fully consider Amorte to be a dungeon synth tape, proper. It incorporates a number of dungeon-y synth elements that provide a lot to the dark lo-fi atmosphere, but there's just something to it that feels different than much other DS tapes. Maybe some would consider this more as dark ambient with folk elements? Perhaps experimental DS? Maybe you'll disagree, give it a listen.

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Eternal Fear - Ancient Woods

First music post for DE will be a pure dungeon synth tape from 1995. Polish based project. Tape spine says Warhagan records but a metal archives roster says Moonshine Productions. This seems to be the only project the solo musician Nerthon had, other than an appearance in 2003 to play some keyboards on a Carnal track.

Really classic dungeon synth sounds here. Fans of the dark 90s stuff will love this. Dark, brooding, and hypnotic. Definitely black metal intro/interlude/outro kind of material. Seven tracks on side A titled 'Ancient Hymns', maybe following after Nattens Madrigal. Side B is only two tracks, titled 'Atmosphere of Sorrow'. Kind of a strange melancholic end to the tape with 'The Celtic History'.

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