Long Road Home by Hole Dweller
It is still a wonder how Hole Dweller, when trying to make a minimalist record, ends up creating some of the most lush and vivid atmospheres in his career. Hole Dweller has always been concerned with nostalgia. For the most part these hazy gazes into the past have been comforting and sentimental. Long Road Home was written in dedication to a lost loved one and is presented as 14 brief tracks which were written to be experienced like soundtrack loops as heard in video games. This is an intriguing way to listen to the record either by manually starting the track over again or letting one track repeat on whatever player you have available. The result is one of the artist’s finest records which looks like a cozy escape but is in fact a sentimental epitaph to hazy memories. Hole Dweller continues to be a commanding artist if for nothing else that the way they make these records look so effortless but sound so complete.
Magna by Mons Mythic Synthesizer Music
Mons Mythic Synthesizer Music (Mons) is the work of a creator who also runs Fantasy Audio Magazine. If you have been following any of the label’s work you are aware of the absolute support of experimental music and outsider music. Magna is not the debut for the project nor is it anywhere close to the first. Manga is however perhaps the best place to begin with Mons as it not only presents its esoteric thesis but also showcases an ensemble cast of absolute weirdos. With guest contributors like Magic Mishap, Spife, Elyvilon, Hecate, Gorgons Alter, and Ervald, Magna is a heroic dose of music resulting in the genre dissolution and ego death. I have always been in support of the vanguard of artists who are continuing to experiment finding the new horizons for sound and Mons has always been a project which is off on some vision quest.
Princesses & Towers etc. by Faery Ring
It is sometimes hard to believe that this project existed in the mid 2010’s as a dark and dreary dungeon synth act which was almost apocalyptic in its sounds. 2016’s A Kingdom Beset By Despair was adored by the community for its droning dirges which felt like solemn figures drifting through a purgatorial state. Since 2024 Fairy Ring has grown into both a comfy(ish) synth project of sorts but also one that comes with an irreverent tone to music and art. Princesses & Towers etc is an exploration of fairytale romances but in the most self aware way possible. Each of its songs are devoted to a different princess with its music is intended to be “saccharine, schmaltzy, chintzy, and twee.” The title of the record is even somewhat flippant. This post ironic take on not only the subject matter but fantasy ambient is something that can only have come from someone who has already eclipsed the darkness and now is approaching something much brighter. This project is best experienced as an artist who occupies the entire spectrum of sound and emotion and chooses to have a laugh at everything.
Featherfey by Unsheathed Glory
I actually do not remember when I started to listen to Unsheathed Glory and whether or not it was before or after the artist became a regular fixture at literally every live event I attended. At every show and festival there was this warm and magnanimous bard who was usually wearing a cloak as if they were sitting by the hearth regaling the crowd with stories. Unsheathed Glory is a project which is entirely set in the creators world of Charvencia. Its embrace of fiction bleeds even into the real world with the creator highly interested in costuming and pageantry for immersion. I talked highly about the 2025 record Beneath the Sun and Soil, which was what I feel fully matched the scope of the artist’s passion. Featherfey is a continuation of this hifi adventure with a further delve into the myths of stories of Charvencia. Dungeon synth means a lot to many people and I feel this creator’s passion for the scene, the music, and the other creators is admirable and often times inspiring. This is bedroom synth which transcends its limitations and becomes a portal to another world.
Call of the Moss Moon by Lichenthrope
Lichenthrope is the work of T. Feilla who also makes music under the name Elyvilon. Call of the Moss Moon is the debut release for the project and it is unclear if more will continue after this. If anything this record is a concept and immersion in an atmosphere. Call of the Moss Moon is an exploration of minimal vintage hardware and a conscious decision to step away from the heroic fantasy which defined earlier projects. If Elyvilon was diurnal then Lichenthrope is its nocturnal counterpart with music that shimmers with echoes and cavernous mystery. This artist has always been a savant when it comes to sound and presentation of an idea. Lichenthrope is an expansion of thought and execution and even if it doesn’t continue after this record is a proof that there will be more exciting releases in the future which fully embrace a theme and idea.
Arda’s Herbarium: A Musical Guide to the Mystical Garden of Middle-Earth and Stranger Places – Vol. VII by Ithildin
I finally met Ithilin at Distant Stronghold after years of listening to their records. We couldn’t talk much because my French isn’t conversational (or even foundational) but I like to think there was an understanding that their work was inspirational for me when rediscovering dungeon synth in the early 2020’s. Since 2021’s A Long-Expected Party, Ithildin’s work has been a pillar of fantasy synth and the monumental series of Arda’s Herbarium ( an ongoing series musically illustrating all of the plants in Tolkien’s Legendarium) has been nothing short of awe inspiring. I have always loved series and the scope of this project when first learning about it meant that there was close to 10 records before completing. It was an absurd proposition and something that I have been silently following marking in my little dungeon synth notebook.
A Year at the End of Time by IDYLLS OF THE LAST KING
A Year At the End of Time is a lot of things. For starters, it is a concept album about the end of the world seen through the last year of existence and the changing seasons right before the end. It is also a game about the collapsing of empires which comes through the HDK cassette. Both facets of this record are extraordinary and it is only matched by the deeply immersive soundscapes of its creator who described the music as “out of the dungeons and into the wild outdoors.” I feel this sentiment is going to describe much of this music as it starts to roll around the countryside. A Year at the End of Time is a tremendous album whose cover ( The Grindelwald Glacier by Thomas Fearnley) is fitting for its romantic drama.
Path of the Wizard by LAYR
Path of the Wizard feels like a debut even though this project dates back to the early 2010’s. What began as a black ambient / doom project, it slowly morphed into the dark dungeon soundtrack for an indie video game before becoming an immersive dungeon synth project. LAYR is the work of one member from the black / doom band Cultic though you can find both family and friends in collaboration throughout its releases. Though I think all of the previous releases contribute to a larger picture, Path of the Wizard is most complete and contemporary version of dungeon synth. Both dark and atmospheric but with moments of melody which shines in its dark passages, Path of the Wizard feels like it is embracing everything dungeon synth has to offer and becoming apart of the fold.
Der letzte Garten & Das erste Geheimnis by Topograph & Kalle Wyrsch
I feel at one point we will be talking about Germany yet again on the subject of experimental electronic music as we did in the early 1970s. Der letzte Garten & Das erste Geheimnis is a split by Topograph and Kalle Wyrsch. It is a dual release which explores, according to the press release, “the aesthetic concepts behind the architecture of the dead, strange customs and trivial folklore of burial rites and the liminality of graveyards.” The way both of these artists decide to express these thoughts is through a melange of drone, chiptune, and experimental electronics. Dungeon synth is merely a platform where many choose to gather before jumping off into the void. Topograph & Kalle Wyrsch seems to be here only for a second before being engulfed in esoteric fog.
Glimpses of a magical path by Synth for Pets
One of the funniest things about this album, outside the comfy art, and the name of the label, is the amount of people who seem to be entirely down for soft comfy synth from an organization who feels ready to fight. Synth For Pets and Violent Synth Order is the work of one Brazilian creator who not only operates both a project and a label but also distributes a dungeon synth newsletter highlighting releases from the scene. This multimedia approach to dungeon synth feels even more interesting given the nature of the label and its demeanor as if there is ways to be bold and loud through adorable creatures on the front of a cover.
Sunlit Observations by Aperture
Aperture is a facet of Photosynth Archive, an experimental electronic duo from Germany trying to find a balance between new age, dungeon synth, and field recordings. Sunlit Observations is one release exploring soundscapes which range from the meditative to the surreal. Through lengthy tracks new age drone, Apeture is the synthesis between bedroom electronics and spiritual music resulting in something which feels warm and otherworldly. This combined with the labels penchant for vintage graphic design make them one of the more interesting projects operating if for nothing else than for the fact they could do anything next and it would be amazing.
Forsaken Hollow by izolat
Izolat is the work of Derek Rush who made dark ambient / death industrial / noise adjacent work in projects like Dream Into Dust and Unfeeling reaching all the way back tot he early 1990s. Forsaken Hallow is a dungeon synth record which compared to the creators earlier work is less oppressive and less conceptually demanding. This does not mean it is easy or even without emotion and I feel it is because to the previous work however Forsaken Hallows feels intriguing. There is a sense of immense solitude and loneliness which I feel is achieved after delving into dark ambient / noise for decades. The isolated tower which adorns the cover feels like the remnants of a mind warped by chaos and this music is the aftermath of some great storm.
A Moment Out of Time by August Horeth
This is an ambient record just to warn you. There isn’t a cloak in site so turn back now .. or come party with us at the blissful afterlife. August Horeth is the real name or real sounding name for the artist behind Woodland Meditation, Dream Chalice, Dark Cascadian Forests, Winterträume, and probably some other ones I’m not aware of. August Horeth is name of a the project which is made in reverence to ambient artists Steve Roach, Andrew Lahiff, Brian Eno and the cadre of cool looking cassettes that you eventually get on your YouTube feed once you start listening to this type of music. August Horeth isn’t without pageantry as the sound and covers are reverence to a style of music I feel more people would enjoy if given the chance. A Moment Out of Time is an emotionally honest record which embraces a sound that feels like the sun on your face after coming from the inside.