Photo by Peter Beste
Ghosts Dragging A Corpse
Note: The above track was provided with the intent to be background accompaniment while reading this article.
In 2017, I organized a compilation of dungeon synth music which was submitted by the users of the Dungeon Synth Proboard forums. At this moment in time this space was the only place outside of Facebook to talk with people on a social media platform. The idea of the compilation project was that each participant would create a character and make original music signifying their part in a vague fantasy story. Users included well known names such as Erang, Chaucerian Myth, Einhorn, and Nahadoth as well as lesser known names. Some of the participants submitted under projects which have since been discontinued or only existed for this one series. This is where I first encountered Ossa Coronata, who was an active member of the compilation series participating in multiple volumes. The parameters of the project were vague enough that the creators could present themselves however they wanted to. Ossa Coronata submitted their track under the character of “Ghosts Dragging A Corpse.” This is something which stuck with me as this image was so evocative which paired well with the absolute haunted music submitted. It wasn’t the dark imagery since at the time dungeon synth was still in its dark dungeon aesthetic, but rather the abstract nature of the character. Ossa Coronata created a tableau or an action of something happening rather than one figure. Ossa Coronata was an idea or process in action and the character was the grim theater of its work was dragged by ghosts. I still think about this compilation and the 11 volumes that came after, especially since the name of “Dungeon Synth Compilation” is so general new people in the genre continue to download it despite it being one of the most esoteric offerings from dungeon synth’s history. I also laugh at the fact people coming into dungeon synth have a “Ghosts Dragging A Corpse” as their musical Virgil.
Today it is 2024 and I am at the Texas Dungeon Siege Event. I am looking over the table for Attic Shrines which I knew because it had the coolest name and aesthetic and also offered spectral noise which I found deeply intriguing. This is where I learned that Attic Shrines and Ossa Coronata were created by the same person and that Magic Find, who was performing that day, was a part of the same phantasmagorical universe. We talked in person about things we experienced through our shared time on forums and also marveled at how things changed in almost a decade. It was amazing to see something I was aware of in 2017 become such a large venture that I never really had all of the context to. This also goes to show that even for a person who considers themselves knowledgeable about a style of music, there are things that are out of reach of understanding. An entire world of silent theater that is kept secret. Attic Shrines is a label which releases music but similar to Windkey, Order of the Weeping Willow, and Verdant Wisdom, its approach to “albums” being more like on going art projects or the greatest inside joke to have existed.
AS: The label had a name and was started conceptually in 2012. The name was meant to express the idea of hidden interests, private fascinations, and the use of ‘attic’ being applicable across the ages, even in a modern context. Individual physical copies of the dark ambient projects, Sigil & Key and Laþian were made on reel-to-reel for personal use around this time. This material was shared with just a few contacts. In 2015 Ossa Coronata was started specifically as a Dungeon Synth project. A two track demo was released digitally under Attic Shrines, though there was only a primitive logo at the time and the label was not mentioned explicitly. I believe this was where you first came into contact with any of my material. Lord Bill from Moonworshipper contacted me about releasing that Ossa demo on cassette after hearing Ghosts Dragging A Corpse on your DS Comp and digging further into the project. I sent him the full 5 track EP ‘Ander Lant’ and he released that in Oct 2017 while I launched AS and put out three tapes at the same time: Sigil & Key, Magic Find, and Voidbearer. I consider 2017 the official birth of the label. I initially posted this announcement on the Pro Boards, this is also a good reference for each batch as they came out since I believe I have always updated the thread with each release. Your comps were a chance to try new things with Ossa, and it did work as a new sound was found by the time of Trials with ‘The Ghosts Inhabit a New King’ and it was finalized into a piano-led project with ‘The Ghosts Become Fog’ and has mostly stayed there ever since. The Ossa project is probably going to be dormant for a while but there will be one more new release on Chimney Rocks before returning to the coffin.
Loop Rituals
Dungeon synth has always been an experimental electronic genre. It’s inception was born out of the desire to try weird things on a keyboard since that tech allowed for exploration of sound. Noise and experimentation are methods implemented by those who are not content with staying in established places but driven to push beyond and explore even further. At the TXDS event, I saw all of the dark and weird acts which gathered on Sunday chatting with each other like they were all at a barbecue. Instead of standing around the grill or table of potato salad, they were over tables of Tascams and home made instruments which made unearthly noises. They joked with each other as it seems like they were all familiar with one another and some had funny tattoos that I made comments on. This is what intrigued me about a group of people who have always been five steps ahead scouting out sonic frontiers. They were also completely at ease as if their continual service spent in the realms of the dark made them seem in stoned relaxation among the real world. This is where I first heard the term “ambient dungeon electronics” to describe the use of dungeon synth as an experimental leap into things unknown. For a style which is continuing to evolve and become something no one thought possible, I find this term intriguing for people who like the idea of dungeon synth and its DIY approach to making music but always feel like an outsider because they make everything too weird. I guess these are the weirdos who all would all be at a picnic together and I am coming over to join them.
AS: Ambient Dungeon Electronics is a sort of sub-title for the self-titled Magic Find release and has been used in Magic Find releases since. It’s meant to reference DS but also go beyond it. “Electronics” referencing hardware-based industrial and noise methods such as guitar effects pedals, amplifiers, contact mics on junk metal, sampling, field recordings, looping, tape machines, etc. As if the dungeon spirit continued past the keyboard into other means of sound. It is slightly separate from Dungeon Noise, since I think that subgenre almost has an established sound that is a bit narrower – being distorted synth and/or synth mixed with Harsh Noise Wall. There is room for those aspects in Ambient Dungeon Electronics but I wanted to be a hair more distinct with that intent: atmospheric, dungeon synth, noise/industrial. Attic Shrines has releases from other artists on both sides of this minor classification: Sunken Tomb of the Elders, a release that falls under the term Ambient Dungeon Electronics with its cycling of harsh sounds and melodic passages, and Spökelycka, referred to as Dungeon Noise and coming from the Tyrannus/Ranseur era. Ambient Dungeon Electronics isn’t meant to be a genre but more I suppose an extension of Dungeon Synth and specifically Dungeon Noise, and a description of the sound and a manifesto for the Magic Find project and one of Attic Shrines’ primary interests and pursuits. A lot of sound attempts to answer the question: How far can material go in both the Noise and Dungeon Synth directions while still undeniably being both?
Shrieking Petitions
AS: Every release is a collaboration. Attic Shrines is not a normal label. Someone wanting to release on AS must want their sound corrupted and their vision consumed. No releases have been issued as submitted. Most have had extensive input while recording and more than a handful have had direct production handled by me. I often manage some aspects of art, titles, effects, arranging, editing, mixing, mastering, dubbing, printing, stamping – up to the full process other than initial recordings. Music is sent in and then if willing, the collaboration begins so that the material can become a part of the AS body of work. Sometimes it’s me merely requesting that the artist record more material in a certain manner, other times it’s them fully sending in stems for deconstruction. As a rule I never add any recordings of my own to their material and only try to bring out aspects that exemplify the AS sound. If the artist is interested in becoming a part of Attic Shrines then they are committed to trying to find this sound together. The non-neutral producer and curator roles are not unusual in other genres, but in Dungeon Synth, and at a label level, it may be unique.
Dungeon synth’s history has been marked by individuals exploring sound in a solitary setting. While there are emerging collaborations, dungeon synth, for most of its history, has been an self driven style with a connection forged between musician and keyboard. This connection has often times celebrated mistakes and minimal post production as if the very act of playing is sacrament. This is why this sort of collaboration at times feels heretical to destroy one thing to build another. This also feels on brand for a place like Attic Shrines which often explores the realms of discomfort and engaging in things which would upend tradition. I am sure there are people who submitted to Attic Shrines and disliked the process while I’m sure there are others who reveled in the dream of creating something new even they themselves thought impossible.
One of the first aspects which struck me about Attic Shrines was its uniform visual aesthetic. For Attic Shrines it was the monochrome designs which looks like it was condemned to a lifetime of being photocopied. Labels which have a communal design aesthetic are something that is intriguing since it seems like everyone is working in concert to present something new. This is the foundation of Attic Shrines as a concept. There is unity not only in sound but in visual and overall vision. It is the creation of art through series and the strength of the sum rather than individual parts. This does not mean each of the artists who participate are without character or personality rather their contributions together build an ongoing project. I was suggested to talk to some people who worked with Attic Shrines about the process since I was even unaware of the things which they went through. L.B.R.P and Mortwight were kind enough to lend their experiences for this article.
L.B.R.P: I think AS is a label with such a distinct sonic blueprint that for me I almost felt like I was pandering with what I submitted. I remember recording an old Yamaha organ and vocals through a loop pedal, then played some of the Conqueror’s Mourn samples from my iPad all in one take, then did another keyboard overdub later. This was all on 4 track. I knew right away that it was called L.B.R.P. I remember submitting two tracks and being pleased by the label’s interest in the material, feeling like I had made “an album” despite the intent to deliberately explore what I heard in their releases. I remember being a little shocked with the first draft. While editing the stuff there were definitely moments that I grew attached to that simply weren’t there anymore. But what was there was captivating. I’m not comparing myself to Miles Davis but the scope of the work, reconstructing parts from sometimes disparate elements, was like what producer Teo Macero did with a few of Miles’ albums from this time: assemble a final cut from a bunch of raw studio material. What came out is something I’m proud to have participated in. It’s also not something that I think my musical instincts would’ve produced on their own. I can hear the gulf between what I thought I was imitating, and the editing and processing that I _think_ was actually applied. The end result certainly sounds more like it fits among the label’s catalog. As a collaborative experience it is valuable to be able to point to stuff that is clearly different from your usual output, and I think about this release somewhat regularly for that reason.
Mortwight: Attic Shrines and I started working together with Ancestor Cult. I approached him about doing a dark ambient release and he explained his process and the active role he takes in shaping and producing releases on the label in order to fit them into his overarching vision for the label. I was very intrigued by this process both because I find collaborative approaches to art fulfilling and very productive, even in a genre as solitary as dungeon synth. Plus I am in awe of AS’ dark and disturbing vision for the label so it was an honor to not just do a release through the label, but to work with its mastermind. I was very impressed by the result of this collaboration on both Ancestor Cult as well as Death Initiation, a split with the dark ambient project Astral Death, produced in a similar manner by Attic Shrines. As I was putting together the tracks for Militant Melancholia, I felt that they lacked a certain grit and dark anti-heroic (as in, opposed to the concept of heroism) spirit I was going for. I thought this was something AS could help me with; and so after a conversation with AS at Northeast Dungeon Siege about this upcoming album, I asked him if he wanted to produce and release it through the label. The actual work flow consisted of me sending him demo versions of the tracks along with the stems for those tracks. Attic Shrines would then torture and distort them through the grim sonic alchemy he applies to his productions, suggesting edits, re-arrangements, and the omission of various synth as necessary. In some places this required some serious rethinking of the parts I had written to make them suitable for the more distorted, blown-out sound we were moving towards. I think AS felt a little hesitant about these changes since they were definitely a move away from the fuller, more ethereal sound of the Militant Melancholia demo material. I remember him saying to me at one point that he would struggle to describe his work on this material as an “improvement” (haha). For me, however, the end result of this collaborative process is the full realization of the themes and emotional core of Militant Melancholia as I wanted to present them.
I often think about the mention of Teo Macero in this context as the producer for some of Miles Davis’ most famous records was influenced by mid 20th century avant techniques and musique concrete. I often look at dungeon electronics in the same spiritual fashion as musique concrete. Not only do both of them employ the same techniques of tape loops and sound collage but the fact that it is enjoyed and appreciated by a fraction of the community who is excited about the deconstruction of sound and creation of something otherworldly out of the remnants.
Deconstruction is a concept popularized by Jean Jacques Derrida which challenged the institutions of meaning and interpretation. I used the term “deconstruction” at first to describe Attic Shrines breaking down of form and rearranging of parts. The more I write the more I see them proposing a re-calibration of meaning and interpretation. Attic Shrines seeks to decentralize meaning and leave it up to the participant. This is not music which has an easy connection. It is not music that is escapist or even fantastical. It is a challenge to what qualifies as music and a tool for reassigning the truths we find valuable. This type of sound, for however challenging it is, is a lodestar set to guide us to find something new.
Death Chants
The Projection of the Astral Body is a specialized series within the work of Attic Shrines. At first we were calling it a sub-label and on Discogs for simplicity it retains that description. The Projection of the Astral Body can be thought of as a project within Attic Shrines and the entries are a part of a presentation. The Projection of the Astral Body is a 1929 book detailing the use of astral projection and out of body experiences. Psychic researcher Hereward Carrington and subject Sylvan Muldoon collaborated on a comprehensive study on metaphysics and the use of traveling to the astral realm. The Projection of the Astral Body was also the name of the first release in this specialized series by Attic Shrines and even its cover has text pulled from the 1929 book. While this use of media could just be for aesthetics, I feel with everything I have learned from this label that the ephemera is a part of the experience.
AS: The Projection of the Astral Body was an organizational method that allowed for collecting different releases together while separating them from AS proper. These were all meant to lean more in the Noise genre than other releases and this distinction could help guide some listeners toward or away from them. In the end there were other aspects about the releases that caused them to be more uniform than initially conceived, so a sub label may have turned out to be less necessary. These releases were each about specific books detailing otherworldly accounts. Scraps of quotes are displayed on the covers along with an image of a central figure. The music provided for these releases was directly related to each book. This series will take a pause after the forthcoming fifth entry is released. Perhaps new artists will continue it in some time.
I felt a connection with Attic Shrines for their use of noise and haunted imagery as a way to talk with ghosts. This isn’t a literal communication through medium but rather the exploration of the unknown through unusual sounds. Drone, chanting, intonation, and repetitive vocalization all fall outside of what we consider melodic music and all have connections to rituals and sacred practices. It is the sensory oddity which brings the practitioner in the moment. I often think of noise as a part of ritual where the music is a break from what we consider a part of the real and primes oneself to be receptive to the unreal. Over the past year, I have found a connection with noise, drone, and even some more inaccessible new age as a means to be receptive to things beyond understanding. This is why I am so fascinated with Attic Shrines and the use of music to explore this area. I asked Attic Shrines the question of “do you believe in ghosts?” less as a need for evidence and more of a grounding exercise to see if Attic Shrines and this series was exploring the same notions.
AS: I have an interest in exploring those who claim supernatural experiences though I don’t have personal evidence for ghosts myself. I do have evidence for conditions and feelings that could cause some to conclude that there are ghosts. I have been in environments that cause primal reactions of things not being right. I have had all senses indicate a condition of unknowable fear, and other senses, ones I’m not able to articulate, warn that there is a situation far outside of what is normal, extreme unease from no one particular cue. I have not seen a haunting but I have been and lived in places that had every sign of being haunted. Atmospheres of tension with all signs screaming: death. The discussion of ghosts and horror topics is more the discussion of this opaque finality. The fact that an internal life does not have an ending that can be contemplated once experienced. There is horror in this ending but there is also horror in its prolonging. In fact, the only confirmable horror is by those who endure experience itself. Those that, unlike animals or other life, consider and dread the inevitable horrors they will endure and the somehow ultimate horror of not enduring anything else at all ever again. This is the real super-natural, unique to man outside the rest of nature, the real horror – the unshakable knowledge and awareness of imminent suffering caused by the grueling march towards death by all things. This is the effect that this music is meant to elicit. This is the metaphor the darkness represents. When one listens to seemingly haunted material, at first they may on the surface consider “could such terrors exist?”, but the undercurrent, always present, is “maybe not this terror – for me it does not exist, but terrors do exist, and those surely wait for all of us”.
Death and dying, in the sense that finality and the cessation of existence, is something I do not like thinking about. In fact the fear of death would be up there with the top 3 things that make me uneasy. I feel these types of confrontation of something I fear made me so interested in the idea of ghosts and hauntings and perhaps why I attached myself so much to a series which deals with metaphysics through dark ambience and harsh noise. This relationship also constructed a larger understanding of noise music and the way people listen to it. On one hand it could be easy for me to think about this type of music as a way to process the things that make me uneasy with music that is comforting in its abstractness. On the other hand, the idea of ghosts existing would mean something lies beyond the departure from life and perhaps my interest in ghosts is wishful thinking to something beyond this mortal coil. Whatever the case I have found a sort of therapy through noise and this series being something of immense interest. Haunted aesthetics can certainly make people uneasy and a lot of my personal interest in esoteric media and things that would be props out of a horror movie doesn’t scare me as much as they propose reassurances. I don’t personally believe in ghosts and have no need for hard evidence. With that said, I think this fascination is driven by existential fears and a label like Attic Shrines is here, at least for me, to provide music for this catharsis.
Exhumed Tones
Spökelycka is the mirror project of Örnatorpet where Dödens Klockor was created as the dark and obscure creation to contrast the light and medieval Midvintersagor. Both were made in 2018 and Dödens Klockor was posted to the internet message boards under the title “dungeon noise.” The artist then removed Dödens Klockor, being unhappy with the product, forgot about the work until Attic Shrines unearthed the idea. Together, the two resurrected a 7 year old idea into this release. This is perhaps one of the most intriguing ideas is a label which scours the message boards supporting and seemingly forgotten ideas and encouraging them to their natural and artistic conclusion.
Rotting Nostalgia
I knew when doing this article it would be a process. Attic Shrines was very gracious in answering questions and sending back suggestions. In fact, this article became a microcosm of an Attic Shrines release where an idea was proposed and we worked together to create a unified product. Attic Shrines wanted a space to present the label through visuals and sound. I wanted a chance to write about music in an immersive and informative fashion. I wanted to thank them for being not only meticulous but receptive to new ideas. The musical track intended for the article is a part of a larger personal interest I have in production and library music. I had this idea for the people who I interviewed to make background music intended to play during the article. It would be a part of an optional and directed experience. I find it funny that I was more comfortable pitching this idea to noise musicians as they are most open to new types of ideas. Not for the fact noise people enjoy library music but since the concept is weird and weird is where they have decided to make their home.