Abandoned Places, Erdstall, Mystic Towers, etc

[thekeeper]

Discussion thread for all Abandoned Places projects:
Abandoned Places, Erdstall, Mystic Towers, Siliniez, Zweilicht, Fortress of Mystery, Loremaster

A very prolific artist and an important one for a lot of us, and particularly enigmatic. I'll start off with my favorite Abandoned Places release:

Strider of Dead Suns

I don't feel that this release is as popular as his other ones as AP. I think his earlier few albums are more favorited, maybe for more their more accessible track lengths, but this one really hits on everything I love about Abandoned Places. The first track, Sanctum of Yondo, is actually kind of pretty to me. There's a weird belching dungeon voice synth in the back, but the actual leads are fairly pleasant and almost comforting. Deathbringer is one the heaviest Abandoned Places tracks there are, evokes images of some kind of hulking obsidian violence elemental you fight in a pit. The last title track is pretty taxing at over forty minutes, sometimes bringing images of dread, but images of hope at times as well. I imagine this is the background music to actually traversing the hot, dry, black mass of a dead sun. Fantastic album.

[thekeeper]

Turonian is another project whose BC page is aesthetically similar and the droning compositional elements have led to suspicion of this being another AP project, just has that 'AP project feel'. Highly recommend this one regardless.

[Deleted]

Wait, so is the same person behind all of these projects?

[Tyrannus]

How have the existing confirmations been made? How do we go about trying to confirm other ones?

[thekeeper]

Apr 24, 2017 14:43:13 GMT -5 @ancientrecollections said:

Wait, so is the same person behind all of these projects?

I'm not sure there has been literal proof as far as I can recall, but yeah it's the same guy. Maybe andrewwerdna could attest to this? I don't know who around is in contact with him these days.

[Tyrannus]

I have heard talk that folks think he is Voormithadreth as well

[thekeeper]

Apr 24, 2017 14:47:39 GMT -5 Tyrannus said:

How have the existing confirmations been made? How do we go about trying to confirm other ones?

From mine and other's assumptions, it's based off of BC page design, composition elements, VST choices, and tagging choices. 'Dungeon Music' as a tag has drawn a lot of his projects together, although Fortress of Mystery is the only one lacking that specific tag. He's typically just very original yet has a specific feeling where you almost know it's him when you hear one of his projects. The majority of his works are from the early bandcamp days so it was easier then to piece together the projects since there were so few in the first place.

[thekeeper]

Apr 24, 2017 14:48:43 GMT -5 Tyrannus said:

I have heard talk that folks think he is Voormithadreth as well

That one I'm much more doubtful of. I can necessarily say why I am, it just doesn't fit to me. Even something as small as the description of the project on Voormithadreth's page causes doubt for me.

[Tyrannus]

Apr 24, 2017 14:52:44 GMT -5 thekeeper said:

Apr 24, 2017 14:47:39 GMT -5 Tyrannus said:

How have the existing confirmations been made? How do we go about trying to confirm other ones?

From mine and other's assumptions, it's based off of BC page design, composition elements, VST choices, and tagging choices. 'Dungeon Music' as a tag has drawn a lot of his projects together, although Fortress of Mystery is the only one lacking that specific tag. He's typically just very original yet has a specific feeling where you almost know it's him when you hear one of his projects. The majority of his works are from the early bandcamp days so it was easier then to piece together the projects since there were so few in the first place.

Yeah I had made the connection with the "Dungeon Music" tag for sure.  

[Morannon]

For long time, i supposed the guy behind Erdstall and Mystic Towers are the same person. 2 albums with 2 songs of 25 each one...

[nahadoth]

My first assumption was due to the similarity between the Mystic Towers and Erdstall artwork, rather than the track length.

That specific feeling I get is from the overwhelming bleakness, particularly in AP, Erdstall and Loremaster. All of the confirmed projects are pretty astonishing uncompromising in the mood they create and sustain. AP is some of the only DS that scares me, but I can't get enough of it. A huge influence on me in subtle ways.

As for Voormithadreth, I would not be surprised to learn that it is from the same person, but yeah the actual description does throw me a bit. I love the distortion and heavy reverb, really conveys the purple prose of CA Smith for me. Voormithadreth feels much more like a live performance, which I believe none of this guy's projects besides Zweilicht are.

[andrewwerdna]

I haven't talked with him in a long time, but I just now sent him an email so maybe we can get a confirmation on this.

[balbulus]

I'm glad someone created a thread like this, I've been thinking about it for a while. As I've said recently on the DS Facebook page, I first suspected the link between AP, Loremaster, Erdstall, Mystic Towers and Siliniez back in 2012, based on a combination of various aesthetic and musical similarities. I mentioned my suspicions to Andrew, who confirmed that the guy behind AP had admitted as such in an interview, but wished for it to remain a secret.

All of the projects were linked to the PayPal for Jeshimoth Entertainment, which is run by the guy behind Jute Gyte, Adam Kalmbach. This lead me to wonder whether he was also behind all these DS projects, as well as other projects like Ophir and Failure Ritual which were also linked to the same PayPal address. Note the similarity of aesthetics in the Jute Gyte, Ophir and Failure Ritual covers.

However, in an online interview, Mr. Kalmbach states that he has no other projects besides Jute Gyte, but he does run Jeshimoth with another friend who has a lot of weird projects. I assume this must be Mr. Abandoned Places himself.

I've recently noticed the possibility that Turonian and Voormithadreth could be other related projects, but I have no evidence to support this.

[Tyrannus]

Apr 25, 2017 6:39:07 GMT -5 balbulus said:

I'm glad someone created a thread like this, I've been thinking about it for a while. As I've said recently on the DS Facebook page, I first suspected the link between AP, Loremaster, Erdstall, Mystic Towers and Siliniez back in 2012, based on a combination of various aesthetic and musical similarities. I mentioned my suspicions to Andrew, who confirmed that the guy behind AP had admitted as such in an interview, but wished for it to remain a secret.

All of the projects were linked to the PayPal for Jeshimoth Entertainment, which is run by the guy behind Jute Gyte, Adam Kalmbach. This lead me to wonder whether he was also behind all these DS projects, as well as other projects like Ophir and Failure Ritual which were also linked to the same PayPal address. Note the similarity of aesthetics in the Jute Gyte, Ophir and Failure Ritual covers.

However, in an online interview, Mr. Kalmbach states that he has no other projects besides Jute Gyte, but he does run Jeshimoth with another friend who has a lot of weird projects. I assume this must be Mr. Abandoned Places himself.

I've recently noticed the possibility that Turonian and Voormithadreth could be other related projects, but I have no evidence to support this.

The possible Jute Gyte connection adds a whole new dimension to this...

[balbulus]

Indeed it does. Mr. Kalmbach and his friend have built themselves a nice little empire of obscure and interesting music.