Due to my new found interest in comics be it reading, writing and drawing, the last year has seen me shop in comic stores on par with my addictive record shopping habit. By doing this I have been able to expand my creative imagination often finding inspiration from the themes and topics discussed within the panels.
One particular find, although more of a zine than a comic is the fascinating ‘Weird Walk Series: A Journal of Wandering and Wonderings from the British Isles’. The introduction to Weird Walk reads;
“What is Weird Walk? It started as friends walking. For us walking is an active engagement with the British Landscape and its lore. Whether traversing the chalk paths of the South Downs, or the shifting landscape of the Black Mountains, we want to not just stretch the legs, but also get thinking and talking and creating around the land and its history both, both real and imagined.”
To me I couldn’t have found this magazine at a better time, for my current interests within sound and art are primarily focused on exploring a rather neglected part of my heritage, rural Britain and the folklore surrounding these grassy pastures.
WALKING INTO THE DUNGEON
One feature of the magazine is where an artist or genre suited to lone wanderings is examined. The genre for this issue is DUNGEON SYNTH. Dungeon Synth essentially pools its inspiration from the synthesised instrumental aspects of Black Metal and the world of High Fantasy.
Utilising cheap synth hardware, 8 bit RPG style melodies and song titles that sound more like quests from D&D, Dungeon Synth is a micro-genre aimed at guiding the listener to a forgotten mythical past we only really explore in games, literature and film. Drawing themes from Medieval and Renaissance compositions ‘Dungeon Synth is the perfect soundtrack for this kind of escapist fantasy. Think of the “intro” track to your favorite metal album, but stretched out to album length. Dungeon Synth is a rapidly expanding genre that includes artists working in a variety of styles, ranging from sparse solo performances on electronic keyboards to fully-orchestrated symphonic compositions.
Another key point compositionally is that most Dungeon Synth artists revel in the limitations of the ‘factory settings’. It is rare for the artists to manipulate the original sound of the synth, possibly a nod to the simplicity of a romanticised past. I’m drawn to this aspect of DS because of its sonic limitations, I am a fond believer in the ‘less is more approach’ partly because it enables the listener to expand the music within there own head and imagination.
I will continue to explore this fascinating genre once I have delved into a number of the albums.
The first three albums I intend on listening too are;
Hedge Wizard-More True Than Time Thought
Fief-II
Thangorodrim-Tar Nu Fuin
(I would also like to note that up until a month ago I had never heard of this genre!)
