Apologies For Any Mistakes.
For Invisible Oranges I made a list of favorite dungeon synth (DS) records for 2025. When I was putting it together I chose artists on relatively larger labels with accomplished releases that could be classified as “well produced.” If a person would stop me on the street and ask for 10 dungeon synth and related fantasy ambient records from 2025, and I had no idea about their preference for sound or why we were talking on a street, those 10 records would be a great start for my new friend. There were obviously more than 10 DS records in 2025 and many more with different styles and strengths. I also mentioned in that same article that I had more recommendations from 2025. This is one of them.
Raw ambient is a style of dungeon synth that I have named to denote the type of music which celebrates the human aspects of a very bedroom genre. Raw ambient is minimalism married with primativism which worships an unrefined spirit as if it were a sacred avatar. Though there is no manifesto or guidebook to its sound, the use of hardware equipment, improvisations, recording directly to tape, and an extremely limited run of physical copies are usually aesthetic signposts. Dungeon synth, for all of its speculative indulgences, is very much an underground genre which began with home recordings by solitary figures making music recorded to tape and distributed across private social networks. Raw ambient is just an extension of this sound and time period with various themes from the very traditional ones like medieval and fantasy motifs to more neutral themes like dreams, nature, and liminality. This does not mean a refined sound is antithetical to dungeon synth, rather for some, the reduction of production is a part of the process of trying to trap the essence of an unrefined spirit as if it were lightning bugs during the summer night.
Raw ambient, for me, is a ward or protest to the encroaching AI presence in ambient and background playlist music. It celebrates human made music by embracing audio hiss, handdrawn art, and recordings which end just because the tape ran out — (this is a joke to one specific person but it probably applies to many). The use of machines is a supporting character, one that exists as a nest of patch cables into boxes that might or might not work all of the time. The use of analog machines for recording in a digital age isn’t just nostalgic whimsy, but rather the most direct channel from creator to product with all of the mistakes retained for authenticity. I jest, mainly to myself, that AI doesn’t want to replicate this type of music because it sounds like a mistake. Why would a computer try and replicate this? The tape ran out.
While I am sure replicating raw ambient, noise, or other lofi types of music is possible, it doesn’t seem as popular to disguise in playlists. Raw ambient is music made by people for people even if those creators and fans are niches within niches. In some way this type of music feels like an invisibility cloak to hide against a smarter world. It reflects a desire to wade in crude waters is the same as to see an album cover drawn badly with crayon or to hear a missed note or three. It is a way to celebrate the naive magic which lay at the bedrock of this genre and hear the mistakes that can only come from a person trying their best. These releases do not constitute every raw ambient release I 2025 rather are just the handful I enjoyed that crossed my path. Continue to make music even ion you feel it isn’t professional enough. I want to see your hand drawn cover even if you think it looks terrible. If it is really terrible I want to see it even more. Don’t ever feel like you need to check the running time on the tape. Life is too short.
A Pilgrim in the Frozen Wood by Tree Gardener
An improvised demo, recorded directly to tape in the cold, waning days of the year MMXXV.
Apologies for any mistakes.
///
There is a 1948 reel to reel recording of free jazz pioneer Sun Ra playing on a church organ. Though some of the music is standard renditions the entire sound of it is a sparse meditation with only the tones of the organ as the presence which weaves in and out of existence. This is what I think about when listening to Tree Gardner, a musician who has taken to handmade tapes as if it were a prerequisite for the genre. A Pilgrim in the Frozen Wood is a winter synth demo entirely improvised and most likely recorded directly to what sounds like a dying tape. There is a torrent of emotion which plays throughout this demo and its decaying sound enhances feelings of solitude, reflection, and ultimately what feels like redemption.
Memories and Memorials of the Deepwood by What Was Said in the Woods
Hand-dubbed tape. Limited to 15.
What Was Said In the Woods is a project from DD better known as Foglord. I mentioned this project in the last Raw Ambient article and how I wouldn’t have heard this if not for seeing it discussed among internet servers. This project is not advertised much if at all and exists mainly to be found. For those who know the creator or have seen his videos they are aware that a solitude existence is not an act and this music comes from a very …very… very… remote part of Virginia. In a way I feel like this is my magical view of rural Virginia where everyone believes in fairies and plays lofi ambient music on limited edition tapes. I know it is not true and even sounds like I am making it up which makes this project even more special to me since it exists in a very unique space.
Key XXVII: The Forest’s Own Dream by Woodland Spells
The sound of the forest dreaming. Hypnagogic enchantments from oneiric woodlands. Ambience weathered by tape imperfections and hiss.
The hypnagogic state is the threshold between wakefulness and sleep usually passed through where consciousness bleeds into the unreal. This term has become an adjective for music that possesses surreal tendencies which feel a part of the waking world except for moments when it is not. Woodland Spells, and the rest of the Windkey Tapes project feels like it owns property in this state and its use of the term feels incredibly apt. I have written many things about Windkey and its creator Evie and despite that fact I feel like I can always talk about this sound as it is perhaps the reason for my love of raw ambient.
Winterträume I-IV by Winterträume
Compiles all 4 currently released Winterträume tracks, each shortened to 20 minutes and presented here ripped directly from the master tape.
One of my favorite aspects of this release is the artwork which presents a slightly off white rectangle as the artwork with the only text indicating the four untitled works on the inside flap. Though this feels like a joke on modern art, the minimalism is natural for music which calls for a blank slate. Winterträume is a winter synth / new age / drone project by Canadian artist Froth and these limited edition tapes are artifacts from a world which calls for quiet. The extreme lack of packaging and design compliments the music and sound and sight are are mere suggestions to a world which approaches a white void.
A Moment Free of Earthly Binds by Sunken Grove
Equipment: Yamaha DSR 2000, Casio CZ 101, Casio SK 1, Roland SP 404, Tascam 414 mkII
I do not know if Sunken Grove intended on being a pioneer for this sound but in April of 2020, Precious Solitude was a watershed moment for many people who saw a homemade demo made in the throes of the pandemic which offered serenity in a world which was just turned upside down. Much like other music this was an escape from current events but also distilled loneliness, wonder, and anxiety into dioramas of extraordinary stories. A Moment Free of Earthly Binds is the final album from the project as the creator has many things they do in addition to Sunken Grove. I feel five years for a project to exist and then be set free is a beautiful existence which makes the world of music like this.
House MMXXV by Silent Garden
Recorded Spontaneously during Rehearsal
Silent Garden perhaps has some of my favorite art and is usually something I point to during conversations about AI art and why it is detrimental to ones music if nothing else for the simple reason that people want to see your hand drawn art. Alright, maybe I really mean “I want to see your hand drawn art.” Silent Garden has been making intimate music since 202 and has an enclosed world that takes places at Alice’s house and garden. Every release is drawn from the same wonderland of sound which feels the same way that dreams do the moment you wake up. There is an immediacy to them that plays in your head that you could swear was real.
A Respite at Thrumminggrass Plains by The Herbalists
Played live, no overdubs, into 4 track, using three keyboards. Composed and performed in the respiteless heat of summer afternoons.
The Herbalists is the work of Adam Matlock who has played in more than one project you might have heard, perhaps even five you have not. Matlock describes this as naive synthesized music though the music itself is very accomplished. Naice I feel doesn’t just mean lack of experience or aeven a gullibleness to sound. Naive in this sense means an outlook which embraces a pioneering spirit and a visionary way of creating things often with rapid succession. The Herbalists id dedicated to JRPG and tablertop games though has a backdrop of new age spirt which sees one person in front of three keyboards just playing into a 4 track.
endless melancholia by Earthen Shield
using only a yamaha PSR-27 & Juno DS. mistakes left in for authenticity
Earthen Shield is the work of Nicholas the Gnome who also runs Weregnome Records. In this entire list, endless melancholia is perhaps the fullest sounding record but not in the sense of production rather in an immersive wash of sound. Even with the use of percussion, Earthen Shield retains the compass used by black metal artists of the 90s and crafting a kingdom of despair using a few hardware instruments and a lot of hours by themselves. Earthen Shield has always been dedicated to the dismal side of nature but not in any tributary way rather as a means to vent emotions and have its distillate as a release for others to experience.
Climbing High Upon Conifer Barks by Alpine Acrobat
Recorded within the freezing forests of the rocky mountains while hands stuck to the keys. Dedicated to the wildlands and life that inhabits them. May you find solace within these verdant ferric recordings listener. Hails to you and the true spirit of dungeon synth.
Finding one release from Myst in 2025 was difficult because there were so many. You can actually go on this Bandcamp and page through gorgeous tape art all with different names and styles. Coniferous Myst, from my understanding, lives in the remote Northwest US and makes solitary dungeon synth as if they were a mystical hermit you visit during a quest. Along with old school dungeon synth as a diving rod, Myst very much celebrates the proximity to untouched wilderness. This is music which lives in the hinterlands and all of its raw beauty is presented in the most logical way possible.
THE MIST-CLOAKED KINGDOM OF THE NORTH by SPECTRAL FIRS
“Born of mist-drenched forests and the forgotten peaks of North Idaho, this album is a dirge for lost kingdoms, buried beneath stone, lichen, and root. It drifts between raw, improvised passages and solemn, deliberate composition, where dungeon synth weaves through the fog like a half-remembered dream.”
Spectral Firs comes from Ancestral Flame Productions which is a Northwest Americas label devoted to dark dungeon music and a visual aesthetic which is perhaps one of the best in recent memory. For the most part this is a label of two to four(?) people making music under different names but all dedicated to the solitary spirit of dark dungeon music music and the grandeur of the American/ Canadian wilderness. This label has had more than 20 releases in 2025 and THE MIST-CLOAKED KINGDOM OF THE NORTH feels like it is more a part of a cold ensemble for anyone to discover.
Wych Elm III by Wych Elm
“Dedicated to all my friends. Tell your friends you love them. Sorry for wasting your time.”
At this moment you can still grab the last few copies of this record plus the Live from London which is a 19 minute recording of the performance at St Peter-in-the-Forest Church in London. The cover for the live recording shows a solidarity figure in a church in front of one keyboard. I assume that this music was made just like that. Wych Elm is a hallucination played at a glacial pace which unfolds across a brief running time and is filled with so many emotions and memories that it is a wonder each release is under 20 minutes. Perhaps this is dream time just in musical form.
Helm of the Winter Forge by Alkilith
“Recorded live direct to tape. Winter MMXXV. Dedicated to the Old Ways. Great Lakes Dungeon Syndicate”
There is something I love about tape art when it is unfolded and scanned. there is also something about music which opens up with tape crackle. Though I have always enjoyed Alkilith’s music, having a visual accompaniment of a woodblock landscapes tinted a pale green blue is the way I enjoy listening to dungeon synth. Though everything in this release is cold, the wonder of Alkilith is the promise of eventual thaw makes the experience transformative since it comes with a heroic arc.