Wooded Memory - The Last Stories
A release which I have thought about reviewing for some time, but for various reasons... I forgot!. Coronade-related? The new president of the USA? Corona-mutants?... I don't know, 2020 has been a weird year... and 2021 may might ... just be a little wee weirder. Nonetheless, I have decided to keep the weird stuff down and put the Kalteldur-thing further up on the shelf for everyone to see it. And what better way to start the first review of 2021 with a prober dungeon-synth release from 2020!
Wooded memory is a newish act from Pasadena, Maryland. Which so far has released 2 albums and a digital l mini-EP. This one called Lost Stories is the debut, it was released in 2019 and came out on a very limited cassette via the label Realm and Ritual (sold out) and is digitally available on Wooded Memory´s Bandcamp-site of course. 5 tracks, around 44 minutes in total.
Before giving the album a listen, I suggest you reading the inner-notes first:
Outside the wind is howling as the sky proclaims its wintry will; a falling blanket of unceasing snow. I watch it from my dwelling, my solitary cell. Today it feels like a refuge, a small fire burning keenly in the corner warms my hands. With quill and ink, I am seeking to chronicle the lost stories, the great deeds, the songs and prayers of a time now long past. I am content. Yet I know tomorrow I will look out on the fresh snow and wish to tread out, to create new stories in my footsteps, to shed this eremitic life like an old cloak and dress myself in confident color. I could revisit those crowded streets full of boisterous speech and joyful reunion. I could find friendship, perhaps even love.
But for now, I will remain, reciting the old tales to myself and hoping to capture their truth on parchment. I will watch the snow, solemn and steady, as it sings its own truth; indomitable yet longing.
Dungeon synth for concentrated isolation? Seems perfect in these pandemic times right?... The first track My Hidden Shelter reveals a snow-covered landscape, the smell of a bonfire is in the cold air. A hint of a dimly light can be seen through the misty and snowy weather... a hut? Not a cherry hut, but a hut that sits on one of the edges of the world. A saddened and melancholic moody piece, with extra retro-nudges towards fantasy-themed movies from the 80s and classic roleplaying games on the Amiga500. Sort of like... Winter-synth with an 80s synth-wave feel.
Next track The Great Prison... The sound of someone walking on dry icy-snow with beautiful epic retro-orientated synth-strings. Interesting kind of melody and mood... kind of takes me back to that classic CMI act Morthhond. I cannot help but think, that a simple martial beating would do well here (can actually hear it in my head when I am hearing this track). A decent track without-a-doubt.
The third track called A Hermits Tale pumps up the grandiose and epic feel. A lovely heroic organ synth, the sound of icy-winds, heavy cello-synth, retro keys, and a bad-ass sound of something metallic being hit at the right epic time. Again, I love this balance between the sound of dungeon-synth and the sound of the classic 80s soundtrack wibe.
The fourth track Thy Humble Knight (being the shortest track) offers a slightly less heroic feel, but a kind of feel one might sense when listening through the soundtrack of Twin Peaks? Romantic and mysterious maybe?. A short track but good.
The last track Escape to the Trees has lovely and excellent sounding church organs which then later evolves into something dreamy. A typical kind of outro sort of a track, but a decent ending to the album.
And that what I had to say about the tracks on Lost Stories. Not the much dynamic sounding release, but a release which offers more a beautiful soundtrack sound with a nod to the 80s. Could you imagine the soundtrack of Miami Vice being stuck in the middle ages? But again, it is a unique release made by an artist with a great vision for his act. For a collector of Dungeon Synth, I would say that every collector should own this unique release... a re-issue maybe?...
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