Artist: Blades of Folmär
Title: The Dungeons Of Darkburrow
Type: Single track/EP
Label: Digital
I first became aware of the somewhat new project Blades of Folmär via the rather excellent Sokol Keep release Eternal Dungeon so I was very pleased when I noticed this release a couple of weeks ago. Firstly the lovely black and white image, the dungeon door just reeks (in the nicest way possible) of dank dungeons, best avoided catacombs and ungodly places. In other words exactly where dungeon synth resides.
This comprises of one long 20 minute passage of music, so about an EP in length and therefore I thought was fair game for an ‘Into The Dungeon’ Saturday review.
It opens as it means to go on; subterranean, almost echoing and slow synth sounds, a sense of waves of darkness slowly making themselves known with greater insistence as you, the foolish, foolish adventurer press on. It rewards you, in a sense, with some mellow horn like sounds that suggest the softest of lights. Perhaps simply the tourch you hold, maybe that light flickering off carvings or simply the stone work of long dead builders and craftsmen.
There is, I feel, something about this soundtrack that reminds me of the darker parts of Vangelis’ ‘Heaven And Hell’ and Tangerine Dream at their most sedate (for some reason I’m thinking parts of Phaedra here but that’s my brain for you…). The sound is lush and beautifully recorded, no hint of the primitive or make do, but it still seems to me to have that almost indefinable dungeon synth feel. It is not simply ambient, it has a heart that wants to take you through the passages and shadows of Darkburrow. It craves adventure and wants you to walk, so carefully, with it.
Like all good dungeon synth this allows your imagination to wander. This is actually music that would perfectly suit a TTRPG session, a serious one of delving carefully into the unknown. It always hints at some reward amidst the fear and respect that the place brings, something in that soft melodic sound within the darker synths being the quest that makes you press on where a sensible nature would have kept you outside that oh-so-simple door. Sparse but still enveloping, this is another fine journey by Blades of Folmär and most definitely worth your attention.
Draw your sword, light a hooded lantern and step carefully across the threshold. Who knows wha….
…….hello?……. hel…..
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 