This article was written for The Reliquary Notes #3 published by Relics of the Eternal City. What follows it the text of the article. Please support your local zine distributors.
” It all began when Paul wrote to me to do a reissue of my first album “A Long-Expected Party”. I was then a newcomer and totally unaware of the dungeon synth community, so I would have never guessed that a label would ever want to release the music I was recording when I couldn’t sleep at night. I immediately loved his way of working. Simple, efficient, always filled with enthusiasm. He also seemed to have phenomenal consistency in his work. And the number of releases on the label clearly demonstrates it! And above all, Paul was really open-minded : dungeon synth, comfy synth, fantasy music, black metal, new age… It seemed like a perfect fit for what I intended Ithildin to be in the future.” At the time, I had just discovered the book “Flora of Middle-Earth” by Walter S. Judd and wanted to record a series of albums based on it. As I said, I was a newcomer with only one album behind him, so I was feeling like pushing my luck to ask Voices of the Ainur to help me with this. I pitched him my ambitious project of Arda’s Herbarium and he jumped in it right away with enthusiasm and motivation. So we started to work in 2021, first 3 albums in 2022 and here we are in 2024, six releases later. I’ll really miss VotA, but I’m glad to know Paul is stopping it for positive reasons. His work is astronomical, he released plenty of my favorite releases, such as Disquieting, Overlooked, Angel, Aura Merlin, Chattox, Frostgard, Eternal, Gloom Wanderer, Mortlach and many, many more! That’s crazy.”
– Ithildin (2025)
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Our relationship started when I contributed a couple of tracks to “Voices of the Ainur Compilation 1” released January the 15th 2021. The first was “A Winter Fairy Tale” (Meadow Grove) and the second “Inför Slutet” (Sorgetid). So two of my projects were involved right away. My main project was also featured in episode 20 of their podcast in June 2021. Sorgetid is one of my side projects. It’s my way of trying to compose funeral doom using only synthesizers, and the themes of the albums are often sombre, dealing with grief and sorrow. Paul was certainly very amenable, especially concerning Meadow Grove releases (I had only to mention the name and he was instantly interested in releasing an album).
– Meadow Grove (2025)
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“I released all three Disquieting full-lengths on tape through Voices Of The Ainur, and I will be eternally grateful to Paul. I would not be where I am now not just with Disquieting, but an artist as a whole without him. End of 2020 and beginning of 2021, I was unaware of just how big of a scene Dungeon Synth is, had only listened to the classics in the genre not even a year prior, and had just finished the first Disquieting full length. I didn’t even realize how much of a comeback tapes had been making. I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. Reaching out to Paul was a big leap of faith; as a metal musician, I was used to “no” or not getting a reply back at all. His kindness and efficiency in working with someone who was basically a newcomer is something that cannot be understated. I thought I was pushing my luck with pitching two more albums to VoTA that were longer and weirder than the first, but his enthusiasm for each Disquieting album gave me the confidence I needed to pursue it further and made me feel more like a legitimate artist. He truly makes a connection with the artists he works with because he truly loves the music, and it shows with everything he put out with VoTA. Not to mention I’ve made several new friends in the scene because of VoTA (shout-out to Ithildin and Angel especially). I will miss VoTA, but as the saying goes, I’m not going to cry because it’s over; I’m smiling because it happened.”
– Disquieting (2025)
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I met Paul a few years back around the time he was starting up the Voices Of The Ainur Bandcamp cassette label. He had already dabbled in a few killer podcasts, one focusing on Black Metal and another on Dungeon Synth. I was a huge fan of both of these and the weekly playlists were amazing. I was also intrigued to know that he was a fan of my writings with The Dungeon In Deep Space and so a friendship was immediately formed. Every so often he’d ask me to put together a playlist for his podcast and soon after, was asked if I’d be interested in writing promo blurbs for his VotA label. I immediately accepted. For the next few years, I would write blurbs for tons of prodigious albums that he released and VotA quickly because one of the premiere labels for Dungeon Synth (and music of the obscure realm). On a personal level, Paul and I not only bonded over music, but we had very similar tastes in Asian cuisine, culture and cats (we both shared critter pics often). That all being said, Voices Of The Ainur has left its mark on the Dungeon Synth community and I’m super proud to have played a small role in its endeavors. It leaves behind a legacy of cassette releases that will stand the test of time, with many to become sure classics of the genre. Most of all, I became friends with a great person! If he were to ever consider restarting the label, I’d be there in full support! All hail Voices Of The Ainur!!
– Dave, The Dungeons Deep in Space (2025)
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Lamerak comes from the very new and capable Voices of Ainur which was originally a podcast that expanded to a tape label. Lamerak is actually the first tape release for the label followed by Reliquum in January of 2021. For an opening statement, Lamerk is a fantastic record for a label with a lot of promise. From the sweet medieval sounds which drift over taverns in the woods to abandoned ruins of long forgotten kingdoms, Lamerak is an adventure in under 15 minutes with a release that is structured as a narrative arc. There are many styles displayed here as an overture to a bright future for a label that seems to just be getting started.
– KAP, Tape Wyrm (2021)
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Then the voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and lutes, and pipes and trumpets, and viols and organs, and like unto countless choirs singing with words, began to fashion the theme of Iluvatar to a great music; and a sound arose of endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the heights, and the places of the dwelling of Iluvatar were filled to overflowing, and the music and the echo of the music went out into the Void, and it was not void.
– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion.
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The pandemic changed a lot of things. Many creative people found themselves inside without outlets that had normally been available just a few weeks past. Online micro-commutnies, such as dungeon synth, offered a refuge for many of these people who now suddenly had a swatch of time. Combined with the welcoming attitude for DIY production as well as a naive approach to making music, dungeon synth blossomed under the dark times of the shutdown. Refined online algorithms began carrying once niche content to people who were suddenly showing interest in DIY bedroom music. For a brief moment dungeon synth was delivered to an absurd amount of people and brought more awareness perhaps than the previous decade. New creators, fans, and labels opened windows to a genre which had been operating in darkness with the curtains drawn. For me, the early years of the pandemic gave me an extended time for writing and put me back in touch with a genre I had spent many years writing about but hadn’t for sometime.
The negative aspects and drama surrounding a terminally online genre, which had soured my recent experience, was muted by this new wave of creators and spaces for discussion. There suddenly weren’t any real rules in how things were made and for a moment new people came in and made new things. This was a time I discovered new creators and labels since I had all of the time to page through new releases and more money to spend since I wasn’t paying for gas to go to work. It was here I bought Lamerak’s self titled debut and wrote a blurb about it in my blog Tape Wyrm. The label’s founder, Paul, messaged me asking if I wanted some more tapes. There was no agreement for promotion rather just Paul wanted to send me more tapes since I showed interest in this new label. Shortly after, I got a new batch of tapes in a tightly packed parcel. This exchange happened the next month and then the following for the next few years. I do not know how many tapes I actually have but I would hazard a guess I have in physical form most of the Voices of the Ainur catalog.
One of the things which struck me about Voices of the Ainur was their ability to send me tapes from artists I never have heard before. Outside of the bigger names like Ithildin, Meadow Grove, Heaven, and Disquieting, much of the tapes I now own were from artists I have never come across despite paging through new releases each month. They were also, for the most part, entirely wild and without any sort of hesitation to be weird. Even though dungeon synth is a semi-manageable genre due to its size, the output of Voices of the Ainur highlights the genre’s breadth as there is always someone making something weird and good enough to be on tape. My relationship with Voices of the Ainur was a casual fandom where I got to experience the discography in physical form and see each one of the tape shell colors and designs. It was here where I got to collect things despite not having any more room in my collection space.
Voices of the Ainur ran from 2021 to 2024 amassing 163 releases and 103 podcast episodes. It existed at the time when many people were creating projects or looking to make their first cassette. For me, the catalog of Voices of the Ainur is a time capsule for the high time of the pandemic and its related projects. Though some of these existed before that time period and others will continue after, Voices of the Ainur will forever be etched as a purveyor of a lot of weird things at a very weird time. I am eternally grateful for Paul sending me these tapes not because I got free merchandise but rather to show me the breadth of a genre I had recently just gotten back into. I wanted to write this as a monument to a label which was started just because and ended for the same reasons. Paul’s enthusiasm and flash inspiration to just start a label without overthinking it will remain one of the bedrocks in how I operate things. I will live by the two mottos that Paul ended our interview with — “just fucking do it,” and “don’t overlook the weird stuff.”
– Kap, Reliquary Notes / Synth Digest (2025)
/// Interview ///
How did VOTA start? You mentioned it was a Covid project
VOTA started during the isolation of COVID. Some people bought Pelotons, some people learned to bake bread. I started a dungeon synth label. In the past I had run a couple of (unsuccessful) black metal labels and learned from that experience that recording tapes on demand would reduce cost of entry. If I sold 3 tapes a month I would be happy! Well, it quickly got too overwhelming to home record and I moved to pro-recording.
You said that it is ending due to positive things . Can you share what they are?
Nothing amazing like winning the lottery or retiring to an island paradise. Basically where I work I got a promotion so my role has changed and I am getting better work/life balance. Things have changed employment wise for my partner as well. So now we have more disposable income and time to travel and such.
Outside of some of the bigger names like Meadow Grove and Ithildin a lot of your catalog is from lesser known and artist not known to many. Where did you find the artists?
It started out with being a fan of dungeon synth and wanting to support artists by buying physical products. Paying for digital tracks just doesn’t have the same “magic”. There were a lot of artists that I wanted physical copies of their albums but nothing existed. So in true punk style I DIYed. After a few releases were out I rarely reached out directly artists. Artists started coming to me. Sometimes I would post on IG looking for new artists to release.
I think a lot of labels have yet to reach the number of releases you have. What was something you didnt expect when fully doing this label. What about something you were worried about going in but found it not what you thought.
I think how quickly the community responded to our releases was very unexpected! There are so many other amazing dungeon synth labels out there why would people be interested in mine? And people really want to buy cassettes? 🙂 The big thing I worried about was having tons of old unsold stock. I still have boxes of unsold black metal tapes cluttering my basement. 🙂 But it turned out that keeping releases limited to 25 per release I found the sweet spot.
Any advice for aspiring or new labels?
Just fucking do it! The cost of entry at a cassette level is very low! Hook your computer up to a tape deck. Print/photocopy covers. Release what you’re passionate about. Don’t overlook the weird stuff.
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Give me 5 (could be more) releases you feel are standouts on your label. To make it easier maybe 5 you felt were amazing but might have flown under the radar for people.
1. The Myconid – Myconid Madness
I am a little biased here as it’s my friend’s old side project.
2. Leander – A Journey Lost to Time
I always loved the diversity of sounds that Leander used. They really should get more notice.
3. Pretty much anything from Aleksis Tristan Shaw but if I had to pick it would be Uncrowned. Their musical output level is insane! So much and such top quality!
4. scoreBoi – The Mole King’s Tomb
If you love Stardew Valley you will love scoreBoi
5. <Slaves For Architecture> – From The Bronze Age
It really comes across as a specific time in the past.