I want to share the work of Angel with you. Angel’s beautiful compositions are emotionally evocative and if you are prone to categorization, you might place them in the boundary lands between ambient and dungeon synth. There are songs that summon a host of feelings in Angel’s catalogue. after listening, I am always left with a sense of calm and an authentic of acknowledgement of the human condition, as if I have been heard as well. Hopefully that makes sense~ I think Angel’s music is a lovely gift.
They also create under the name Starmourning and that project is particularly inspiring to me. They also have a small digital label called Indigo Reign, which contains lovely treasures of sound and imagination. Lastly, they shared a ton of music that they find inspiring~ which has turned into one of my favorite parts of talking with musicians. I sincerely hope you enjoy.
CR:
What is your musical origin story? How did you get started making music and what were your early influences?
Angel:
I first became interested in music at school where I had a friend who had been playing piano for many years, we would be in music class and they would be getting everyone's attention by playing seemingly any song we could name, I specifically remember they played the "Pirates of The Caribbean" theme, and I was simply in awe and knew that I wanted to learn the piano, I asked my parents and got an old Yamaha keyboard from the 80s that had barely been played meaning it was in perfect condition, I thank this keyboard for starting my interest in old school synth sounds, which definitely pushed me into the Dungeon Synth genre later down the line.
I first started writing music properly when I had the demo for FL Studio, it took me a while to learn the basics but from there I began playing around with the built in VSTs and loved every second of just experimenting without having any kind of goal, I went for this old school synth sound as best I could, and ended up writing quite a few Dungeon Synth-esque tracks, some of which would end up on my first album, Overlooked. I still didn't really know what I was doing when I made this album, it was still a learning process, but honestly I'm happy with how it turned out considering I had no real experience before this. It was at this time that I really started listening to more Dungeon Synth, and I fell in love with the genre, some of my early favourites being:
Aindulmedir - The Lunar Lexicon
Moth Tower - Sharpen Thy Knife, Curse The Sky
Old Tower - The Rise of The Specter
Angel:
In terms of non DS inspirations, the soundtrack to Skyrim by Jeremy Soule was always a favorite of mine, no other soundtrack makes me feel the way that this one does, I guess it's a mix between nostalgia and it being a prime example of the music I aspire to make, the track "Standing Stones" from Overlooked was deeply inspired by it. I am also hugely inspired by the works of Brian Eno, his music really changed how I thought about music and later on how I approached writing it. I was also inspired by a lot of progressive rock, this can't really be heard in my music, but when I would listen to bands like Camel and Pink Floyd, I would just be inspired to make something.
CR:
One of my favorite parts about interviewing people from the extended dungeon synth community is that I learn about music I haven't explored yet. It is an education that I find to be incredibly inspiring. The progressive and ambient influences are not all that surprising!
I was wondering if you would do readers the favor of a deeper explanation of what VSTs are and FL Studio?
I'd also love to know more about how you compose your music. How has your creating process changed since your first album?
Angel:
FL Studio is the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) I use, essentially it's where everything goes on, from the composing to mixing and mastering and everything in-between, VSTs are the virtual synths I use for the actual sound, it's what separates a piano from a virtual bass for example.
My way of composing has changed greatly from the start and still changes depending on my mood and what exactly I am trying to make. When I started I was just playing random notes and chords that I thought sounded good with no consideration for music theory, I didn't even bother with time signatures.
Angel:
Slowly I began incorporating theory into my tracks, which helped me give structure to my songs instead of them just being different sections thrown together, which I think still has a certain quality to it, (this is the progressive rock influence haha) I instead started making more simple piano / ambient pieces with less focus on covering as many "styles" in a track as I could, to instead creating tracks with a specific style in mind. Many of my tracks and even albums have one key theme that I try to represent with everything from the artwork, to track titles and of course the actual music, this is much harder to achieve without considering everything before composing. I don't think it's a better way of making music as oppose to when I started, it's just a different way, It all depends on circumstance and what you want to make, some start with ideas, some start with experimentation and just finding something that sounds good.
CR:
Could you talk about the themes and concepts which drive your work?
Angel:
It really depends on what I am writing, and what project I am writing for, sometimes just my emotions drive my work and I end up with a track that doesn't fit with the album I am currently working on or doesn't work with the style I want to make, so a lot of tracks get shelved for later or remade at a later date. With some releases I want to convey a certain emotion throughout the whole album, whereas sometimes that isn't the case and a track just turns out the way it does.
Angel:
Inspiration can come from anywhere. Sometimes a painting inspires me to create music, sometimes listening to other music inspires me, sometimes its taking a late night walk and looking at the stars, honestly anything. Every track I release has a story behind its inspiration and as I mentioned, sometimes an emotion attached that I want to convey, whether it be grief, calmness or joy.
CR:
What can you tell me about Starmourning? What inspired this project in particular? It is particularly beautiful~ your skill at weaving textures in your compositions is enthralling and engaging.
Angel:
Thank you! A lot of what inspired Starmourning in terms of the music was unreleased dark ambient tracks I had made in the past that didn't fit with what I was making, so I wanted them to fit somewhere. It also feels like I have a lot more freedom when making tracks for Starmourning, I have freedom for Angel of course, but I feel more free to really make whatever I want where as with Angel I have a much more set style as of the last few releases. In terms of themes and concepts, much of the inspiration comes from late night walks as I previously mentioned, as well as a lot of personal experiences and memories, just a reflection of life really.
CR:
Can you tell me about Indigo Reign?
Angel:
Sure, I just wanted a way to help artists get their music out there, as well as helping people find Dungeon Synth to listen to, it also means that people send me their albums to listen to so I don't have to go and find them myself!
I took a small hiatus from Indigo Reign at the end of 2022, but I have plans to continue with it soon.
CR:
I'm glad to hear you're going to continue, there are great releases in there. What other plans do you have for the future, music wise?
Angel:
Honestly I'm not sure, I've had so many ideas but so many of them I haven't or couldn't work on, I'm sure every musician can relate to that. I just work on whatever I feel like at the time and then build it up as a release from there, I stopped trying to force myself to make a particular style of music now and just write whatever I feel like because it usually turns out better.
I want to work on a lot more Starmourning material and of course to continue with Angel, I also want to make some more albums for Arthur Kipps which currently sits as a "one off" project but I haven't really had the time to work on that, but I'm sure at some point I will get to it.
CR:
Who are artists or projects that you would recommend to people who like your music? What are you listening to or getting inspired by lately?
Angel:
I've been listening to a lot of shoegaze and post rock recently which has definitely been inspiring, as well as some psychedelic rock, which hasn't really inspired me to make different music, but has helped me analyse what I'm working on and make it more unique in different ways.
There are so many great Dungeon Synth artists to recommend, though I would definitely like to recommend a few that have inspired my music and others may enjoy:
Disquieting, "Empty Throne Among The Stars" and "The Ruins of Conscience" are two of my favourite recent Dungeon Synth albums, Avery captures emotions and thoughts that I haven't heard in any other music, definitely a huge inspiration.
Angel:
Thanaphos, a really amazing artist who has definitely inspired me to write a certain style of Dungeon Synth / Ambient, I also love the space theme of the project. I'd definitely recommend checking out "Eternal Solitude"
Heaven is an artist who has been such a huge inspiration for me, their albums are definitely on constant rotation for me, especially "Sacred Remains" it was an honor to release a split with such a great artist.
Ithildin is another artist I have had the pleasure of working with and who is so inspiring to work with when it comes to writing songs together, he always has amazing ideas, I would heavily recommend the "Arda's Herbarium" series as well as "The Hobbit At The Gates of Dawn" which is a very unique Pink Floyd tribute
Here are some more of my favourite albums and artists to check out:
ETERNAL - Depths of Sorrow
Hewer of Caves - Tabernacle
Willow Tea - Home
Moonlit Mourning - Moonlit Mourning
Echonia - Inner Sanctum
Gray Friar - Etymologies I-IV
My sincere thanks to Angel for their participation in this interview.
Here is where you can follow all of Angel’s Ambient DS Adventures and creations:
Angel's Links
You can support this page here:
Continuous Revelation's Buy Me A Coffee
and Here: Continuous Revelations Bandcamp
Best,
CR