Interview With Silent Cabin
A cold minimalist winter-themed dungeon-synth/ambient act which comes from the very land which brought us the mummy-trolls, yup Finland. No, not anything being heavy-metal here! The act has been active since 2016 and has released 7 albums so far. I stumbled upon the creative mind of this project on the social media, and thought to myself ´I´m really curious about this mysterious act, I wanna interview this guy!´. Why for whatever reason? Because I simply think that Silent Cabin (seems) like an isolated/outsider-project in the realm of dungeon-synth, a very unique act with its own sound and signature. Which again takes you back to the mummy trolls, can you compare them with anything else??... No, you can´t! Same thing with Silent Cabin, the reason to question the guy behind the project and find out what makes this act so special.
In the spring of 2016, I started delving into various smaller genres, most importantly dungeon synth.
Inspired by classic DS projects such as Depressive Silence and Forgotten Pathways (and an important album for me, “Dream Castle” by Tanning Salon), I decided to start a DS project of my own.
Simply the want to do some kind of music to escape from the reality was inspiring. My first few recordings were pretty much just experimenting and learning how to work a DAW…
A few years back there wasn’t (for my knowledge at least) not many Finnish DS projects out there. Of course, such projects as Lunar Womb and some tapes from the 90s were known. I haven’t seen DS recognized in bigger music mags etc. here though.
My favorite painter, Hugo Simberg and his symbolic paintings depicting death have always resonated with me greatly. I like to use the paintings of Finnish and Nordic artists because I can easily relate to the subjects and ideas depicting Finnish landscapes for example.
As mentioned above, yes. Every year at yule time I go visit my relatives and both the drive there and the area they dwell has always been inspirational.
I love doing my own tape releases, the DIY aspect of creating a release from scratch and being rewarded is great.
Only this year, the single contact so far wanting to release my music on a label was from Britt, who runs the So-Called Hell label. I am eternally thankful to him for wanting to work with me.
Ridge Dweller focuses more on a natural sound; a real keyboard and guitar. I started it last year and quickly released three demos of lo-fi DS with guitar blended in. The first full length will be out really soon, and I think it moves a bit more away from the DS territory and is more of an Avant-folk/drone oriented.
So, the project is of course far more away from the minimal, wintery DS sound of Silent Cabin.
I’ve been planning a re-release of “Lonely Mountains”, and I can say it will be out this coming winter.
Other than that, this summer I started a small label called Lahja; the focus originally was for gathering my new releases under the same roof but has expanded to include a few other projects, not by me.
Bandcamp: (band)
https://silentcabin.bandcamp.com/
Facebook : (band)
https://www.facebook.com/silentcabin
How and why was Silent Cabin created in the first place?
In the spring of 2016, I started delving into various smaller genres, most importantly dungeon synth.
Inspired by classic DS projects such as Depressive Silence and Forgotten Pathways (and an important album for me, “Dream Castle” by Tanning Salon), I decided to start a DS project of my own.
Simply the want to do some kind of music to escape from the reality was inspiring. My first few recordings were pretty much just experimenting and learning how to work a DAW…
How is the interest in dungeon synth in the land of Finland?
A few years back there wasn’t (for my knowledge at least) not many Finnish DS projects out there. Of course, such projects as Lunar Womb and some tapes from the 90s were known. I haven’t seen DS recognized in bigger music mags etc. here though.
Where do you get your visual ideas/themes from? Books, movies?
My favorite painter, Hugo Simberg and his symbolic paintings depicting death have always resonated with me greatly. I like to use the paintings of Finnish and Nordic artists because I can easily relate to the subjects and ideas depicting Finnish landscapes for example.
Does the music of Silence Cabin represent the landscape of Finland?
As mentioned above, yes. Every year at yule time I go visit my relatives and both the drive there and the area they dwell has always been inspirational.
Do you prefer creating your own physical releases yourself than being on a label?
I love doing my own tape releases, the DIY aspect of creating a release from scratch and being rewarded is great.
Only this year, the single contact so far wanting to release my music on a label was from Britt, who runs the So-Called Hell label. I am eternally thankful to him for wanting to work with me.
You have another project called Ridge Dweller, can you tell me about that and how it differs from Silent Cabin.
Ridge Dweller focuses more on a natural sound; a real keyboard and guitar. I started it last year and quickly released three demos of lo-fi DS with guitar blended in. The first full length will be out really soon, and I think it moves a bit more away from the DS territory and is more of an Avant-folk/drone oriented.
So, the project is of course far more away from the minimal, wintery DS sound of Silent Cabin.
Future for Silent Cabin, future releases in the making?
I’ve been planning a re-release of “Lonely Mountains”, and I can say it will be out this coming winter.
Other than that, this summer I started a small label called Lahja; the focus originally was for gathering my new releases under the same roof but has expanded to include a few other projects, not by me.
Bandcamp: (band)
https://silentcabin.bandcamp.com/
Facebook : (band)
https://www.facebook.com/silentcabin