Dark Age Productions: News From the Three Towers - 1997 Catalogue

 

Hello again, readers. Back from the grave, I've scanned a gifted copy of the 97 DAP catalogue/zine. This is quite an interesting relic highlighting the current happenings of projects active among the trinity of the dark age towers. Lots of fun things to read here with numerous descriptions of things that were in the works, many of which didn't seem ever materialize, at least as far as the internet knows. Multiple sublabels planned, very lofty special editions with included books, vinyl, shirts, and more conjured as mirages on the horizon. Some noted releases here did come to fruition such as Valor, a No Festival of Light reissue, and the first full Nythra tape (which will make a long awaited appearance on this blog eventually.) The ambition here from Bard is admirable and its heartwarming that DAP has persisted to the current day. For the uninitiated, do yourself a large favor and checkout the back-catalogue of DAP releases (and the newer works as well!) Some essential and legendary works from the 90s golden age of ds and medieval dark ambient/ncdw, eventually resurfacing as rips on the essential Asmodian Coven blog years ago that paved the way for the modern DS revival.

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P.S.

Yes, there are many posts to come.

Alviss - Dunkle Wälder

Sincere apologies for a delay in posts. This one will count as the August post. I'll post the one for September soon, and the October one should hopefully be coming soon as well. Also, many have informed me that a number of download links have died. All dead links have been reuploaded with nofile, which seems to be the most reliable service I've found so far.

I've been holding onto to this tape for a while so thought I'd throw in something new before uploading the last Arcana Liturgia tape. Here's the second demo from the German artist Alviss. You might know Alviss from his short first demo 'Fafnir' which Ascoven uploaded last year. Dunkle Wälder is a bit of a bump up in terms of dynamics and variety, but still sticks to a minimalist delivery, leveraging imagery with sparse, repetitive, and hypnotic sound. I think this demo is better than the first, and clearly shows the artists growth. No date here as with the previous demo, but I would peg this either some time in the same year, '96, but more likely '97 since there is a noticeable difference in compositional variety and sound. There's some static crackling a bit in the recording, namely in the first track, but I've checked with multiple tape players and this is part of the recording itself and not the player I used to rip the cassette (perhaps it's the cassette tape itself, but it seems to be in perfect condition).

Dunkle Wälder, like Fafnir, features three tracks, though these three differ much more than the single synth used previously. The first track is a rather odd and delay-laden minimal track that only serves to confuse you. I feel this track is more of your entry into the dark forests (the English translation of the title), the first steps into a path-less expanse of trees and leaves with no sense of direction. Next we come a upon a flowing stream. We lay down and begin dreaming as wind brushes over us. Traum (Dream in English) is much more recognizably DS compared to the first track, with drawn-out synths blanketing nature sounds. You can kind of hear the keys press down on the keyboard at times. Lastly, we come to the heart of the dark forest, to the Tor zur Unendlichkeit, the gate of infinity. Whether this is within us, brought out by the spirit of the forest, or if this gate is physically happened upon through our wandering is unknown, or perhaps we are unable to differentiate between the two; but we are here, led my drum rolls and melancholic yet uplifting ethereal synths into the gate.

Dark Forest Musik

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Cernunnos - Τα Ορχυχεία Των Νάνων

As you may expect, I've gotten more requests to actually make a schedule again for periodic posting, so I'm going to try my best to do so. From this post forward, I'll put forth all effort to post at least once per month. I have quite the backlog built up of things to rip and post, including a number of submissions, so I won't be running dry for some time.

As promised in the last Cernunnos post, here is yet another unearthed demo of his that until very recently has had virtually no mention online save for a couple 'for sale/trade' forum inventory posts, one collection list on a blog, and an infoless mention on his Metal Archives page. In the last month, the info for this tape was posted to Discogs, which I am very thankful for. The tape is labeled as DP 08, yet Discogs states that this tape came out in 1997, DP 02 being released in 1998, so 1997 might be inaccurate.The track names on this demo are nearly impossible to read from the scan I have and I've confirmed with the few others I know who have this tape that their copies are no easier to read. Luckily, the Greek names of the tracks were made available thanks to the Discogs post. I nearly uploaded this demo last month with three track names just left 'Undeciphered', but thankfully we now have some proper track titles. The tape name translates to "The Bunnies of the Nannon". Not sure if this is accurate, but it's cute so I'm not questioning it.

Τα Ορχυχεία Των Νάνων is much more raw and bombastic sounding compared to the previously posted Δασος Των Τραγοποδαρων Δαιμονων. Here we have four tracks percussion-heavy medieval dungeon synth. On this tape we're actually left without Athalwulf's signature flute playing, but we do have his memorable blackened whispers on the second track. Something about this tape reminds me of Bacchia Neraida's Ermis, perhaps it's the brevity of it, but it has a similar 'short and sweet' takeaway like I got from Ermis. All four tracks carry differing moods, a short yet satisfying demo. If you're not one for repetition, you may be a bit bored with this release. Each track contains a melody or riff that is well repeated, but in my opinion is still interesting and enjoyable. The third track has something of an awkward pause in the middle, soon followed by what seems the exact first half of the song repeated again (not just the same composition, it sounds like the same recorded track was turned back on a second after it stopped). Fans of the other Cernunnos releases will undoubtedly enjoy this, and perhaps listeners who aren't very keen on Athalwulf's flute-work will enjoy this as well.

Thanks to my usual anonymous Greek tape affiliate for this rip.

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(I've uploaded this as a 7z file in order to keep the proper Greek characters in the song file titles, unarchive with 7-zip, if you're not already using it.

Arcana Liturgia - MCCXXXI

It's been just a few days short of four months since the last post, but finally here's a new tape for everyone. Not new exactly, but from 1997 and with very few mentions online as far as I can find. This is the first tape from Italian synth project Arcana Liturgia led by 'Azog the Minstrel'. This first tape of the three tape discography is probably the most primitive sounding out of the three, and despite all the black magic and demon-laden imagery, it's a rather pleasant listen. The synthesizers are kind of crude sounding and very reminiscent of old CRPG games. Four songs all between 6 and 7 minutes with a soft hiss in the background.

The first track is my favorite of the four, a very simple innocent melody carries the song along with square-wave bass drums accentuating a slower second half with quick synth riffs over-top. The second track takes a bit of a darker turn key-wise, showing off a few more instruments. Side B contains the other half of the tracks, with the next being much more atmospherically focused with organs making up the majority of the track. The last song sums the tape of with a bit of everything we've heard so far, ambience, synth leads, chimes, darkness and light together. All together this is a pretty decent first effort.

Aside from this blog posting I haven't seen mention of this tape anywhere other than a few collection sales on some forums and a info-less listing on Rate Your Music. I believe this was originally distributed by Elven Witchcraft, but not an actual release they put out on their label. I included a scan of the little slip that was in the case. Glad to have brought this out thanks to an anonymous trade. More to come.

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(On the last post, I mentioned another coming post for the remaining Cernunnos demo. I have everything ripped and ready to go, but the track names are largely unreadable. I'm getting a bit of help trying to decipher these, but if it turns out we can't figure them out, I'll post the tape anyway and maybe some of you might know).

Bacchia Neraida - Ermis

Another few weeks late on the posts. At this point, I may as well redact my weekly posting policy since posting has become so sporadic. I'll still try to do my best to keep this updated, but no formal promises.

Here's the last unheard Bacchia Neraida tape, Ermis. I am not sure if this was the initial release or if it was Dionysos. Ermis has a catalog number while Dionysos does not.  A shorter demo, only three songs, but probably some of my favorite BN tracks here. The tape starts of with 'Hermes', a rather haunting almost gothic track with a lot of black metal qualities interlaced with Athalwulf's narration and croaking. In the middle of the tape, we have Circe. Despite this track being pretty repetitive and vocal-less, it's probably one of my favorite BN tracks. Lots of strings, almost live sounding. Lastly, we have 'Kissoforos Vakcheios' (translated on the internet from the Greek titles, please correct me if I'm wrong. Mid-paced black metal feel that's driven by Athalwulf's flute playing. Weirdly melancholic. Thanks to my anonymous source, once again.

The last unreleased Athalwulf tape to come...

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Bacchia Neraida - Dionysos

After a near two month hiatus, I'm finally back to uploading. Gathered some good stuff in my respite. Not going to make up for the weeks away, I'll just start posting weekly again. Hopefully everything will have been worth the wait.

For my first post back, I'd like to share a rather elusive tape that many have sought after. I wouldn't say this tape is 'mythic' or anything (no pun intended), just very difficult to find. I'm very grateful to an anonymous comrade who has been a great help in unearthing long lost tapes. Here's the first: Dionysos by Bacchia Neraida. BN is another of Athalwolf's projects, the Greek black metal force behind Wolfnacht and Cernunnos. Bacchia Neraida is quite similar to Cernunnos, but I'd say borders more on black metal sans any real string instruments. You'll notice the infamous flute whistling like a hawk on many tracks which makes for great atmosphere and a original/memorable touch.

All tracks are named after Greek mythic figures, though I wouldn't say the the tape resembles any traditional Greek music in particular, much more in the vein of medieval music (not complaining). This is a full length tape with eleven tracks clocking in around 45 minutes. You'll hear the flute a lot, which I believe is an actual flute and not a synth instrument, but the songs vary quite nicely in speed, rhythm, complexity, and tone. The vocals vary between a teenage sounding monotone drone, to high croaking shrieks, and occasional the more orthodox black metal screaming. I wouldn't call this tape pure dungeon synth as it plays with black metal structure quite often (blast beat drums come in at one point), but the grittiness of the recording quality and the crude synth sounds fit right in with dungeon synth tradition. More Athalwolf rarities to come...

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Secret Stairways

Sorry for the late post, but I assure you it's worth the wait. This weekend we have two ultra lost and obscure albums from Secret Stairways, a project of the rather prolific Matthew Davis who was involved in Twelth of Never, a rather heavy goth rock band, Faces of Bayon, a doom project, and Tears ov Blood, a goth solo project of his. Tragically, Matthew Davis passed in 2011, a victim of suicide. I contacted his friend David who was gracious enough to send me scans of both Secret Stairways releases and full high quality rips (endless thanks).

 

Enchantment of the Ring is the first release from Secret Stairways on cassette from 1997. I will go ahead and say it: this is Depressive Silence level classic. I do not doubt for a second that this will become a dungeon synth classic. Beautiful, well composed synths and dynamic instrumentation for a fully fleshed release, with Tolkien themes to make it even better. This is ripped from the original cassette, so the slight tape hiss adds great classic atmosphere. Absolutely a must listen.

Two years later, in 1999, Secret Stairways puts out Turning Point, the debut full length on CDr. I think that instrumentation-wise this is an improvement from Enchantment. The production is more clear and professional and I feel that Matthew spent more time on the composition. Another incredible album. Included in the download are full scans of the CD case inlays and scans of the insert. Both of these releases have been virtually impossible to obtain until now, thanks again to David for providing these.

RIP Matthew Davis
July 6th 1973 - January 23rd 2011

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