“It’s gone from being this niche internet thing to now, suddenly people like Quest Master are selling out tours in the UK,” Flickers From The Fen’s Mercian Sam tells Louis Pattison in The Wire 490. “It’s been pretty cool to see all these weird people coming together – old metalheads in battle jackets, kids who just got into black metal through TikTok, and then folkie sorts like me in the middle.”

As Flickers From The Fen, Sam makes a stirring and melancholy take on dungeon synth, an internet genre that emerged around the middle of the last decade. An extension of the dark dungeon music explored in the 1990s by acts like Mortiis and Depressive Silence, it is often filtered through the prism of the blocky MIDI soundtracks of video game RPGs like Baldur’s Gate.

“There’s such a nicely defined communal tool set,” Sam continues. “You’ve got soaring melodies, dungeon ambience, the faux medieval elements. It’s fun to work with, and actually really easy to fit into other things.

“For me,” he says, “dungeon synth is about using fantasy media as a springboard to explore your creativity.”

Here, Sam compiles tracks by some of the prominent dungeon synth makers today, featuring artists such as Forgotten Pathways, Hole Dweller and Atlantean Sword, plus a track from his new album Stoned In Gielinor II.

Tracklist

DIM “Clandestine”
Atlantean Sword “The Hammers Of Loneiron”
Hole Dweller “Love In The Wind”
Flickers From The Fen “Silly Beast”
Malfet “The Glimmering”
Forgotten Pathways “Beowulf – Stadt”
Jääportit “Hänen Jäätävä Katseensa”
Deep Gnome “Red Maple In Autumn”
Gilgareth “In Der Taverne”
Spife “Fields”
Ithildin “Daffadowndilly”
Porcelain Sword “Lothlorien”
Shadow Knell “The Briar Harp”
The Barrowfolk “Until The Bitter Ends”
Moth Tower “Gnaw the Cosmic Bark”
Flickers From The Fen “Sky Burial (Part II)”
Pafund “The Township Of Fourways”
Fragmented Memories “Collecting Memories For The Future”
Assorted Potions “The Party Members All Embrace At The Quest's Conclusion”

Flickers From The Fen is interviewed by Louis Pattison in The Wire 490. Wire subscribers can also read the interview online via the digital archive. Stoned In Gielinor II is released via Bandcamp.