Dungeon Synth

Every step down brings more density to the air, a more sinking feeling in the bones, a deeper dread lacing each heartbeat. The swarming spirits, forgotten. The caves and flagstone corridors, fading in and out of one another as if smeared together. The vines curling out of the cracks in the stone, both splitting and supporting it at once. Shall you return to the surface? Perhaps, if you can. Perhaps, if you even want to by the end.

Descent Into Underhollow [Dungeon Synth]

Fanfare From Nowhere

Warm Blankets & Goodnight Lullabies

Recorded by M.de.Jong in 2023,
Drachten, The Netherlands.

SWORD OATH - Forest Of The Sorcerer

Akira Yamaoka - Devil's Lyric 2

A Letter From Sir Ranester

Speak Friend And Enter

A Tale of Sorcery

Not my song, if you like this, you should support the artist

Nocmar - Torn Out Roots (2023) (Dungeon Synth, Dark Ambient)

Old Tower - Spectral Horizons (2016) (Old-School Dungeon Synth) [EJ6IRNC3nEk]

mirrored reality

Title:
Dusk

1: "Dusk Movement 1", 06:24 (00:00) (OctaTrig, Soma Lyra 8, Soma COSMOS)
2: "Dusk Movement 2", 07:30 (06:24) (OctaTrig, Soma Enner, Soma COSMOS)
3: "Dusk Movement 3", 05:15 (13:54) (OctaTrig, Soma Pipe, Human Voice, Soma COSMOS)
4: "Dusk Movement 4", 07:38 (19:09) (OctaTrig, OpenTheremin, Soma Lyra 8, Soma COSMOS)
5: "Dusk Movement 5", 04:54 (26:47) (OctaTrig, OpenTheremin, Soma Lyra 8, Soma COSMOS)

Dates:
01-Dec-2025 (inception), 03-Dec-2025 (finalised), 04-Dec-2025 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Synthesiser programming and concepts by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/album/dusk-2

Description:
Dodecahedrons, frequency modulation (FM) networks, free tuning of hardware synthesisers and the sounds of a forest at dusk all come together in this suit, Dusk.

The title is inspired from that magic time when daylight begins to give way to darkness -- dusk. The insects begin to sing,
the forest becomes alive with other sounds. Dusk is an imagined journey into the forest at dusk.

1: Dusk Movement 1
The sun has set, the wind has calmed down, insects and creatures of the forest come out to sing. A normally quiet time except for the chorus from the forest that is slowly building up. A time to reflect on life. In German, we call it the Dämmerstuendchen, a time to sit in semi darkness as light from the sun fads, complemented by sip of a good Australian red wine with a friend. The nocturnal creatures begin to wake and say hello to each other, the bats, owls and possums. 

2: Dusk Movement 2
A distant rhythm of drums are heard, the Cicadas. The birds from tree tops have their brief say. The crickets decide to join in again. Possums scurry from tree to tree. A sugar glider sweeps past.

3: Dusk Movement 3
A breeze picks up, the din of the insects give way to singing trees.

4: Dusk Movement 4
The wind stirs some more, swirling into the caves, awaking the bats, emerge from the cave, flying into the forest.

5: Dusk Movement 5
The wind dies down. The crickets emerge again, the owls fly past. The trees cover the forest in a comforting blanket. Nocturnal marsupials looking for morsels. All settle back to their nests before the sun rises again.

This project has been on the building books and sketch books for a while now. It all started with someone posting an article on the "Mathematical Tiling and Tessellation" FaceBook group about five side shapes (Pentagon) in nature. I was then curious about networking several of these Pentagons for a tuning system, turns out you can connect twelve of these to form a closed surface called a dodecahedron. A very common musical scale in Western music uses twelve notes equally dividing the octave. I started a music project using a scale based upon twelve notes printed on a paper dodecahedron, the notes you would see as you rotated the dodecahedron, that project is still ongoing. This led on to thoughts about how such a shape could lead to a physical instrument -- more trials, more ruminations during my exercise walks. Now, fast forward to Nov/Dec 2025, the pentagon was reduced to a triangle and the closed surface of the dodecahedron was reduced to an open surface triangulation with one pocket.

Eight triangles, eight vertices. My Push2 midi controller, has eight main rotary encoders and eight columns of note pads. An FM synthesiser at it's core has three inputs, a carrier frequency, modulation amplitude and frequency of modulation. Can you see the pattern? The triangles form the topology of the FM synthesis sound generation, the surface the human machine interface. The Push2 as the prototype.

For the full story, see my facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/norman.freund.545/
or my BandCamp site.

Find your self a quiet time to listen to Dusk with a set of good headphones or stereo speakers. Lots of timbre evolutions, small detailed changes and an evolving spatial movement of sound voices.

Dusk Movement 4

A composition inspired by a hike through the beautiful Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park. 

Jennifer Symons: clarinet
Olivia Kieffer: vibraphone
Greg Secor: crotales, glockenspiel

Field recording courtesy of Gordon Hempton, The Sound Tracker®. Excerpted from his Hoh Rainforest recording One Square Inch of Silence.

For sheet music, visit www.billryanmusic.com
For more information about the forest soundscape, visit www.soundtracker.com

Secret Forest

The Snaking Path

Malfet - The Snaking Path

Enchantment of the Ring

Secret Stairways - Amongst the Waterlillies

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.

A Tale of Sorcery

Zothique

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