I found a camcorder at Goodwill a few years back, and occasionally use it in my life to document random things, and give it that good ol retro look…so this was a good opportunity for me to bust that out, and record some music in grainy glory! I had some large black tablecloths that I pinned up behind me, and ran through a few songs. It was alot of fun to record it for the Virtual Siege and attempt not to mess up too much ha. I perform live. I have done around 10 shows now in the last 2 years. Playing locally with Fen Walker, Grim father, Fogweaver, Fernmage, Hermit Knight, and Imp has been so much fun! I played the Dungeon Siege West this summer too, which was so magical. The virtual event was nice because there was no pressure to set up quickly, and to take my time to make sure the tracks sound good. Playing live is stressful and hectic…it was nice to play through my songs in a more relaxed manner. My dog’s name in the video is Louie. He is such a good boy. Pretty sure he prefers treats and walks over dungeon synth, but he is patient with me, so I appreciate that.
This was my first ‘official’ dungeon synth performance. I’ve performed live in several projects since 2005. I grew up playing in an orchestra in the 90s & 00s, later in various metal & rock bands, and solo as an ambient guitarist. The virtual dungeon crawl is interesting because it allows artists from anywhere to be part of the show without the need for travel logistics. Each artist can showcase their performance in whatever way they choose, which is not always possible in a live setting. It also grants anyone with internet access the ability to view & participate. And that’s a neat thing. Highest of praises to Ziri for organizing this. A friendly HAILS to all of the participants. And a big thanks to YOU for your support. You are all part of what makes this scene great.
As a somewhat newer artist, I have yet to actually play any kind of synth music live. I also at least currently use entirely software-based synths blended with analog instruments like guitars and mandolins. To physically play live, I need to first figure out a setup that works with my tools/style/logistics. Given this fest is all virtual, it seemed like a fun obvious way to experiment with a few ideas to develop for any future Fenmoss live shows (namely setlist design, costuming, etc.) As for the video, I am very lucky to have an extremely talented filmmaker friend (Failedspecies) who enjoys making little movies enough as a hobby to do it for free/in trade for tapes and download codes. This is now my second time working with Failedspecies for Fenmoss-related material (the first being an album release trailer for Tales from The Fishwife). This one started as a very similar idea and then steadily grew in scope until it meant wandering around a local creek in 95 degree weather in full garb. I’ve also known Ziri online for a little while now and am familiar with a few of her projects and those of nearly all the other participants, who in my estimation are some of the best newer (post-2020) acts in dungeon synth and related genres. I knew I couldn’t miss an opportunity to be a part of something like that, especially while I’m between albums myself but have some new material I hadn’t yet found a way to shoehorn into a single/EP yet.
– Fenmoss
Being a part of this online dungeon crawl was a really fun experience, and it was exactly what I needed at the time. I had been eager to start playing live, but I’d never done that before, so I figured this was the perfect way to give it a shot but with so much less pressure. Several months after performing this ‘live’ set, I did wind up playing my first show – and I think being a part of this really helped me get over a bit of the uneasiness about taking that next big step in my musical career. I had had the idea for this song for a few months and thought it’d be perfect given the antifascist stance of the crawl. “There Be No Lord of These Woods” is pretty self explanatory, I think – but in a time where nearly all land is the property of the few, this story is about a special woodland that belongs to none – and the, let’s say spirits, that reside there have maintained this border through the ages by whatever means they deem necessary… The day we shot it was actually the day of the first No Kings rallies in the US. As much as I wanted to join in, my social anxiety had other plans…So I figured recording a live version of a protest song for an antifascist music crawl was a worthwhile way to spend the afternoon. My buddy came over with his ipad and we shot it in my backyard. I wasn’t sure how things would work so I simultaneously recorded the audio with my digital field recorder too (I’ll probably release that at some point!). I think we had one or two misfires at the beginning (tech issues) but without much difficulty, we got it in a single take and it sounded great from the ipad. And while yeah, the audio picked up a few cars going by, haha, it also beautifully captured all the lovely birdsong that so present in my garden at that time of year.
I performed live for many years in various punk, metal, and noise projects. The last band I was in splintered during the pandemic, and I did a lot of soul searching afterward and figured out that I really didn’t like being a performer. I love playing music, I just don’t like being on display while doing it, and I don’t ever like being the center of attention. And as a pretty much stereotypical hardcore introvert all of the social aspects surrounding live performance are a gauntlet of discomfort for me that I just endured because I saw them as unavoidable. So instead, I decided to sequester myself away in my studio and make music on my own. What appealed to me about the Virtual Dungeon Crawl is that I could prepare an experience ahead of time and not have to personally be the focal point. I decided to do a score for a silent film pretty much just to see if I could make it work. I sometimes have silent films playing in the background when I’m writing/arranging as inspiration and to have something other than my DAW screen to stare at while I’m listening back to arrangements/mixes. The short film version of The Fall of the House of Usher from 1928 particularly caught my eye and it was in the public domain so I could use it without issue. I slightly altered it from the original, slowing it down by about 10% and adding color filters to further enhance its otherworldly, dreamlike qualities.
I sort of made a last minute decision to contribute a video to the fest! Ziri, the organizer, is a friend of mine, and as soon as she mentioned the fest I was so stoked about the idea. I normally play black metal, so I was really hesitant about submitting something or not. Eventually time went on, and a little goblin voice just kept telling me to do it, so I went for it around mid May. I ended up spending a week rearranging a handful of songs from my EP “Tales of Treachery” taking them from black metal songs and turning them into dungeon/fantasy synth versions. I dubbed them “phantasy synth remixes” as sort of a nod to the Phantasy Star video game series, combined with the idea of having remixes of my songs commonly seen in electronic music spaces. Then I spent basically a whole Saturday figuring out which parts I wanted to play live, and getting my DAW file setup so all of my MIDI sounds would transition at the right times in the songs. Once the sun went down, I set up my lights and did probably 5-7 takes until I got one I was happy with. I’m a major n00b when it comes to playing keys, so it was challenging for me to hit all the right notes without screwing up (spoiler alert: there are still a lot of screw ups in the final take!). I have performed live in the past, but this was my first performance for Lammoth, and first all synth performance! Since Lammoth is usually black metal, I’ve been figuring out how I want to approach doing live shows. I’ve had in mind the idea of doing a solo performance, where I have different backing tracks, and I switch between playing guitar and synth while doing vocals. I’ve been really inspired by the recent rise in popularity of live dungeon synth, as well as mixed media electronic artists like Porter Robinson who all put in really immersive and captivating live shows. Doing synth remixes of my songs really also served as a great test-run of playing my songs live solo, but in a much more stripped down and comfortable setting. I think it gave me a little taste of what doing the black metal versions will feel like later on.I think virtual dungeon crawl really appealed to me from the standpoint of being a nerd who is chronically online. It felt like the perfect opportunity to gather with a bunch of friends online and have a good time without needing to leave my house! It reminded me of how I stay connected with so many friends purely because of the internet, through social media, or gaming or whatever. Plus in recent years we’ve seen things like the Fortnite Travis Scott concerts etc, that I think have paved the way for events like Virtual Dungeon Crawl to happen. Live streaming has become such a popular media outlet, so why not take advantage of that as a platform for underground artists to share music while providing a unique space for our little niche community to gather!
– Lammoth
Without having seen the rest, I imagine my video was the simplest of the bunch. I really do love the pageantry of dungeon & fantasy synth, but I also think it’s important to try to focus on the music and not just the aesthetic of it all. It’s cool to wander the darken woods, encloaked in tattered robes with a gnarled staff in hand, but it’s also okay to sit on your bed at night in your undies, lit by your kids nightlight. Over the course of my life I bet I’ve played live hundreds of times, and I used to really love it, but I think one of the biggest draws to me lately is being encouraged to write music with no expectations of needing to play it live. I’ve become a much more anxious person the older I’ve gotten, and I can’t say practicing and performing live really excites me like it used to. I’m really grateful to get the opportunity to participate in something like this and have it be so stress free!
– Moss Knight
Even if you have no intention of watching a 2 hourish long dungeon synth collection of videos, you should at least watch the 5-15 minute opener for the 2025 Virtual Dungeon Crawl (VDC). The opening credits is a scene which looks like it was ripped out of a fantasy CD Rom circa 1996 or bowling alley strike animation circa whenever. It is an elegant piece of work which not only combines fantasy motifs but also an unexplainable retro aesthetic which for some reason appeals to a majority of dungeon synth listeners. A little bit longer into the first performance by Traveller’s Rest there is a moment between a song where a staff falls towards the end of the frame causing a loud noise and then Louie who is investigating the sound. It is a near comedic series of events which showcases not only the vibe of the event but also the ethos of “all mistakes retained to preserve authenticity.”
For a genre of music which has spent most of its modern history as an online microgenre, one would think virtual festivals would be commonplace but few can predict the actual history. This is not the first virtual dungeon synth festival as the Northeast Dungeon Siege (NEDS) MMXXI performances had four nights of prerecorded videos due to the pandemic. While the 2025 VDC, organized by Ziri of the New Zealand label Arcane Chapel, is not the first, it still remains one of the few and picks up a way of making a festival that has been rarely explored perhaps even forgotten in an age where virtual events feel like a relic of the recent past. Similar to the NEDS prerecorded fest, the VDC isn’t just a concert you watch at home rather a showcase of performances and music videos constructed by the artist. In this regard, the VDC is more of a dungeon film festival that can be streamed anywhere at any time for free. When I was seeing this being organized through various Discords, it seemed fitting for not only a genre of music but for a certain scene of internationally based musicians who comfortably use the internet as a social and organizing tool. Though many of them expressed a sense of shyness when it came to performing, the VDC was loose enough in its parameters that you could really do anything and what was produced is a 2 hourish long showcase of talent and dog cameos.
KAP: Where did you get the notion to do a virtual dungeon fest?
Ziri: VDC arose from the lack of opportunity for me to attend an in-person dungeon synth show. I live in New Zealand and the dungeon synth “scene” here is basically non-existent (though from what I understand that wasn’t always the case). So seeing all of these shows and fests popping up across the US and Europe left me wondering what I could do here and I realised the answer was to do something entirely online and make it something much more special than just a local show.
You have advertised this as an free, antifascist, virtual dungeon synth fest. Do you find each of those things important when organizing this event?
Absolutely. VDC was always going to be a livestreamed event (it’s really hard to put up a paywall on that), and given that the artists themselves are volunteering, it only makes sense to keep it free. Not to mention, it’s entirely online and you can’t justifiably charge entry on something like that. As for being antifascist, I have little interest in working with apolitical or right wing artists, especially in a world as volatile as it is right now. It’s important for everyone to take a stand against fascism, imperialism, and the rampant marginalisation of minorities everywhere. It really isn’t a high bar to clear, but people fail it regularly regardless. I’ve also seen several right wing DS artists participating in other festivals and I wanted to set VDC apart from those.
What was each participant asked to do for their video? was there any set guidelines or rules?
The rules for the event were essentially: a minimum of 10-15 minutes per set, with the video’s contents being literally anything the artist wanted.I initially thought about having it so that each performance must feature you on camera actively playing your music, but this is a virtual event, so why not make it a little more relaxed? Without these restrictions in place, we got a few super interesting submissions, such as a well edited music video from Fenmoss and an original score for a silent film by Old Moth Dreams. That isn’t to say that the regular performances weren’t special, they were absolutely incredible, I’m just so thrilled with the variety we had and I’m really hoping that next year will yield more audio/visual pieces that transcend what you could normally do at a standard show.
Even outside of being a virtual festival what was something you didn’t expect when organizing this. What was something that was easier than you anticipated?
To be totally honest, I had no expectations. Meaning, I figured this would go completely under the radar and people wouldn’t take any interest at all. It was actually kinda touch and go for a while too, I got a lot of maybes, but no one was willing to actually commit to it. And that was fine honestly, if it didn’t work out, then it didn’t work out and I’d move on. But once a couple artists actually submitted, the ball got rolling and we miraculously ended up with a full show. Something that was “easy”, in the sense that I was surprised I could do it, was editing the video. I used to do some video editing like 12-15 years ago, but that was a loooong time ago and I had next to no idea what I was doing when I began working on it. Once I got a feel for the editing software, it was pretty much smooth sailing for the entire process. Though I suppose when you’re already trying to give it a campy home video vibe, the need for professional video editing is removed pretty quickly.
You submitted a video as Feijoa Tree. Is there anything about this project that lends itself to showcase your music.
I found that some of my older music would be too boring to perform, and some of my newer music is too detailed and layered to reliably perform. I performed as my comfy synth project Feijoa Tree for two reasons: 1) it’s beautiful, calming, and I have a deep attachment to it, and; 2) I am bad at playing keys and most of the songs from that album are fairly trivial to play. Not a great answer, but it is the truth! I am, for better or worse, more of an artist than I am a musician. I do have a side project that is more in the realm of progressive electronics that I thought about performing instead, but I figured it may be a little too far removed from the genre and decided against it. I now realise that I’d like VDC to be more inclusive of other synthesizer-based genres for future events, so you may see more of that when the time comes.
Do you have plans to continue this in the future?
Absolutely! VDC was a huge success to me, everything went perfectly and every performance was an incredibly fun time. It only makes sense that I do this again next year, and hopefully for many years to come. And because this was as successful as it was, I’m hoping to draw in more performers for next year’s show, which could in turn make this into a multi-day event. No matter how big it gets though, I’d still like to keep it free and accessible to all, though I’m open to the possibility of raising funds for charitable causes, or at the very least raising awareness. Either way, the heart of VDC to me is a way to bring people together simply for the love of the craft and I plan to continue on with it for as long as I can.
What I appreciated the most about this event was not only the unique perspective everyone brought but the fact you could watch it anytime even long after its airdate. We are in a time period where there are more in person events than online events and the first thing you can say about dungeon synth is its fluidity at being anything. I have been to many in person dungeon synth events and one of the best things about them is seeing how an artist connects with the audience through presentation and performance. The VDC was the same but without the need to even have a person playing in real time or being so obscured you can just see their hands. It was something that was a piece of performance art that gave me a clearer indication on the nature of each of the artists and how they chose to communicate. This genre of music is theatrical by nature which I feel lends itself to the film medium. Additionally the participants both on this showcase and beyond have an ingenuity when it comes to creating things which translates into being able to put together a video in a short amount of time.
I mentioned the joke about the staff falling and then the dog coming over which could be seen as a lack of professionalism. The fact we don’t really have a professional scene of dungeon film makers underlines the dungeon synth both in person and online seems to be guided by the principles of “we will figure it out when we get there.” Even in an era where performances seem established with many in person events being organized by established organizers, there are still events which seem like they are from another world. View counts and exposure matters less in a genre like this as dungeon synth has always been a genre for discovery. It is perhaps part of its charm and I am excited to see this thing float around and perhaps be discovered by others. I have always enjoyed documenting things, even if they seem fleeting, as the genre of music we have all come to enjoy exists because people cared enough to write it down. The history of live dungeon synth, both in person and virtual, exists because of people like Ziri and the participants who decided “sure why not?.” The VDC is preserved for anyone to see on the Arcane Chapel channel and as long as it remains up is a moment in constructed time for anyone to watch. Most importantly we are given a chance to relive and cherish the real star of the show which is Louie, the dungeon dog.
