Dark Valley

DARK VALLEY - TABLETS OF MURK Cassettes available on Personal Uschi Records NOW! 16-bit sounds inspired by the 1991 Amiga game Blade Warrior. oxxx[======================- The demon Murk stalks the Shadowlands! Only the Paladin has the strength and wisdom to banish them! Dark Valley’s ‘Tablets of Murk’ is inspired by the innovative, but flawed Commodore Amiga classic Blade Warrior. Released in 1991 by Image Works, Blade Warrior followed the exploits of a warrior-mage travelling across an atmospheric, silhouetted landscape to gather seven fragments of an ancient talisman from a variety of weird wizards in their precarious towers. The atmosphere exuded by the graphics was breathtaking - although the sound, though well-received at the time - was incredibly minimal, and it had no music to speak of save for two, thin background drones. ‘Tablets of Murk’ samples the original sound effects from Blade Warrior and uses them exclusively to create a 30-minute chiaroscuro dungeon synth tribute, which sounds like a lost 16-bit tracker project recovered from an unlabelled 3.5” floppy. /album/tablets-of-murk-2 #dungeonsynthmusic #dungeonsynth #amigagames #commodoreamiga #chiptune

June 6th is almost upon us! Under the gibbous moon, DARK VALLEY will conjure WORLD FADES into this unsuspecting realm! A dark journey through eerie martial industrial dungeon synth territories, descrying a Pilgrim's progress through a hazardous realm of haunted valleys, cursed relics, bloodthirsty wolves, and dangerous enchantments. To pre-order cassette or digital, follow the hidden paths to the @negativewingspan Bandcamp page. I, Dark Valley, also have a limited number of tapes. DM me if interested! #dungeonsynth #dungeonsynthtapes #dungeonsynthmusic #martialindustrial #fantasyboardgame #darkambient #darkambientmusic

If you haven't yet checked out 'Through the Cavern of Night to the Labyrinth of Light', here is a nudge! This is a 23-minute EP, co-released with @mountainforestcabindweller , with two fantasy synth tracks bookending a longer dark ambient track that plots a journey from the sepulchral to the celestial. I have to say that the central track is one my favourite recordings in recent months. Give it time to unfold! PLUS the download also includes a print-and-play game called 'Cavern of Night' written by my alias 1d10+5, and illustrated by @chaoclypse . It's a side-scrawling necro-crawl that has some DNA from BASILISK! and Runebound 2e. I must also nod to @level1hero and @axxon_n.47 , whose games Dungeon, Grimspire, and KERGUS! were also present in my mind while making it. The EP is available from: /album/cavern / https://1d105.itch.io/cavern-of-night #dungeonsynth #dungeonsynthmusic #solottrpg #printandplay #printandplaygames #morkborg #darkambient #darkambientmusic

Hah, the 32-minute epic I'm working on just turned into some sort of messy Italo thiing for the last few minutes. I think I might well tidy it up and keep it... Sometimes we just need a bit of a dungeon dance.

A bit of messing around this evening... it all went a bit Berlin school... Loop from an old 80s lager ad animated by Tony White.

BLAGGARD RECORDS is pleased to announce the first edition of ‘NORTH WEST DUNGEON FEST’ 2026 A magical gathering of DARK NOISE and FANTASY SYNTHS featuring: FLICKERS FROM THE FEN @flickersfromthefen ORCUS @orcus.ds COEDWIG @destroyedfortress DARK VALLEY @darkvalleyds BARBARIAN RING TECHNICULLIS @technicullis DISKORDENT @discordance668 ESUNA @esunasynth SORCERESS COMORBID + FANTASY CINEMA £20 ENTRY 3rd OCTOBER 2026 @southportbijou - Southport, Merseyside Tickets available through the bandcamp link in the bio NOW Physical tickets will be available through @harpcoffeeandgames soon More details to follow… DRESS TO QUEST ⚔️⚔️⚔️

Some retro content... The Liverpool Echo, Monday 16 June 1986 Since nothing gets people reading like a potential moral panic, Dian Pulson asks whether Fighting Fantasy could create a generation of sword-wielding fanatics... #fightingfantasy

New year, new logo. Why not!

The obscure, the ever entombed, the futility of prayer. It is risen. SÖLITARY DEFILEMENT. The ache ends with death. Preorders are open. Created by @darkvalleyds and published by @flaming.hand Solo supplements for @morkborg_rpg

Well, the album with Borehole (@abbaths_beard ) is almost complete! COSMIC CRYPT == 45-mins of kosmische dungeon musick. Hoping to find an LP release for this one. We'll be sending out demos in a month or two. DM if you're interested. NP: Empyrean Ichor #dungeonsynthmusic #dungeonsynth #kosmischedungeonsynth #cosmicsynth #berlinschool #darkambient

A bit of messing about… thinking of lonely fires by scattered cairns… I may have to do another EP returning to the 'Yn Dyffryn Tywyll' style…

Last night I started to think about new ways to explore the dungeons of musick, and asked myself ‘What if composing was (even) more like dungeon crawling?’ So - I’ve started to develop a system called the CRYPT OF THE MUSES to explore this idea. When I am finished I would definitely put it in a zine if anyone is interested. I also had another thought: can I make a music video in Bitsy? For better or worse, here is the first fruit of those thoughts. #dungeonsynth #dungeonsynthmusic