A Fireside Chat With the Master of Dragons - Interview with JIM KIRKWOOD - 2/21/2025

 A Fireside Chat With the Master of Dragons - Jim Kirkwood

Short Interview for the Continuing Study on the Genre of Dungeon Synth - 2/21/2025

    I had some questions about the general “Dungeon Synth” scene around the time it came into light in the 90’s, and I thought what better person to ask than the Master of Dragons himself? The following questions are answered by the brilliant Jim Kirkwood. Thank you, Jim, for the contribution and great answers!

1. Since the term “Dungeon Synth” wasn’t properly established (at least to the best of my research) until the late 2000’s, what was that sort of sound referred to in the 90’s, if it even had a name at all? More specifically, did people view it unique enough to give it its own term at the time, or was it just under the category of ambient without much other thought? 

    You are quite right, Dungeon Synth as it exists now did not exist in the nineties, certainly not as a finished and polished item. There were a number of musicians, probably not really aware of each other, working in isolation and attempting to capture a mood or atmosphere inspired by fantasy literature or myths and legends. Perhaps it would be worth mentioning that at the time, music inspired by Fantasy literature, especially Tolkien, was hardly popular. We were all working within limitations of finance and availability of  equipment. You could say that these were all very small streams that eventually coalesced into a bigger river and movement. The truth be told. My own efforts were not very well received or understood, that came later.  Much Later. 

2. Since you are indisputably the forefather of Dungeon Synth as we know it today, I’d like to know what you would consider to be the most Dungeon Synth-sounding works before yours, or relative to when yours were released? Are there any “proto-Dungeon Synth” artists who may have directly or indirectly influenced your works? 

    Indisputable? Hah, I am not sure I would make that claim. My influences came out of the Prog Rock I was listening to at the time, The Gates of Delirium by Yes, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis, etc. but a bigger influence was the music of Klaus Schultze, and my all time favourite fantasy musician, Bo Hanson. There were also artists like Dead Can Dance and a number of Classical composers I enjoyed. All of this went into a melting pot of imagination as I attempted to shape my own style of music. I wasn’t really impressed by the avant-guard ambient music of the time or anything that came out of the New Age Movement. I was trying to create something more dynamic and Darker than that,

3. There’s another release that particularly catches my attention that was supposedly released in 1991, right behind Where Shadows Lie. It’s called Sadness and Somnolence by Necrophorus, and I was interested to know if you had heard that release around the time it came out. Aside from your project, it is one of the earliest Dungeon Synth albums I have found. From what I’ve gathered, the album was not actually relatively known or even released until 2008 in a compilation, but if I’m wrong and it was going around the underground before then, I’d love to know.  

    I had not heard this album until quite recently. But the person of Peter Anderson, who most folks will know through his releases with Raison D’Etre. I should say that he is one of the founding fathers of DS, especially his dark ambient releases. I recently attended a DS Festival in London and the influences of Peter Anderson on what I heard were clear. His work seems to me to be inspired more by the darker side of human nature rather than Fantasy literature. I think this is an important distinction. 

4. On a similar topic, can you recall the exact date or time of year that Where Shadows Lie was released in 1990? I can’t find anything online but it would be nice to know as a frame of reference since that is what I consider to be the first Dungeon Synth release. 

    That is a very good question! I have never been one to keep records so my memories are quite sketchy to say the least. I was certainly working on it before 1990. The track Smaug was one of the first tracks I worked on. You can hear the Roland D50 synth all over this album and I purchased the D50 as soon as it was released. Other artists in the EM genre were purchasing the Korg M1, which I liked but could not afford both. I decided the D50 suited where I wanted to go musically. It was a little more esoteric to my ears. I did eventually purchase a Korg Wavestation. Hope this helps a little.

5. Around the start of the 2000’s there appears to be a very sharp decline in proper Dungeon Synth releases, until it was sort of “revived” around ten years later. There are a couple exceptions, a few being your own works as well, but for the most part it seems that the well ran dry in the scene. Do you have any experiences or thoughts on why this happened? 

    I honestly can’t say. I was not aware of the genre until really late. I took a “holiday” from music circa 2011/2012 which lasted seven years. To quote from Thomas the Rhymer, ‘Til seven years were passed and gone, Jim Kirkwood n’er on Earth was seen” It was not until I came back so to speak, that the term Dungeon Synth in connection with my name caught my attention. It posed something of a dilemma, because good folks were paying huge sums of money from dubious sources. I tried to put that right without much success until Erang put me in touch with Kyle from Out of Season. Things began to take off from there. Kyle did a great job of repackaging my early cassettes as well as releasing the music on vinyl and CD, and the artwork on TShirts and patches. Out of Season and their European counterparts are now my official and only source of my early music.

6. I’ve recently come across your side project titled Lucifaere, which seems to be much more strictly Berlin School/Progressive Electronic than your main project. It’s very good, but it seems harder to find some of those albums. Do you choose to keep this project on the more obscure end or can we expect some re-releases in the future? 

    Lucifaere! Hah. Now there is a name from the past. The idea behind the name came from reading Neil Gaimans Sandman graphic novels, which I was very taken with,  (I have always been a bit of a sucker for Comics) which occurred at the same time as my growing interest in Mystical Gnosticism and occultism. The name is a childish hybridisation of Lucifer and Faery. Hence my earlier quote from Thomas the Rhymer. I came to the conclusion that a diversification of my working names was counter-productive, so I dropped it. I also worked under another name “The Ancient Technology Cult” which I discovered in a book by Graham Handcock. Most of the material from these albums were re-packaged under my own name and retitled. They are available on my Bandcamp page. I didn’t find the name Lucifaere particularly harmonious with my Christian beliefs. lol So it ended up in the bin where it belongs.

7. I read in another interview that you dabbled in metal music before you started focusing on electronics. Did you still listen to metal after picking up synth, and if so, are there any metal bands that may have influenced your writing? Especially in the underground it seems there is a lot of back and forth influence between black metal and Dungeon Synth.  

    Yes, dabbled being the operative word. It never really went anywhere. I liked Metal, especially bands like Metallica, but I can’t say I was influenced by Metal, except in a very general way. My influences were much more obvious from Progressive bands who were much more open to fantasy literature. I don’t listen to Metal bands much these days. There are connections between Black Metal and DS. I think these are well documented. But I don’t know how much Black Metal really influenced DS. Perhaps in terms of atmosphere and dark mood there is a connection. But I would not go any further than that. Yes, I think a lot of Black Metal musicians turned toward DS and no doubt carried their influences with them. I recently attended a DS Festival and just observing the good folks there it becomes obvious. We are a product of our history. For good or ill we are shaped by it. IMHO!

8. What are some of your interests outside of music?

    That is a very good question. Especially in light of my above statement that we are shaped by our history. I have had a lifelong interest in Natural History, that has not abated over time. This is perhaps obvious in the artwork for my albums covers. I love being in the remote places of the world. The quiet and the peace I find there is invaluable when I need to think. Another big interest has been religion and the Occult. When I embraced the Christian faith circa 2011, I deliberately took time out to be alone, just walking in the remote places of the land. It was a big change for me and I needed to think about what it all meant, to abandon my Heathenism and occult thinking and become a follower of Christ. I call this time period, my Pilgrimage. Of course, my main interest is the music. and there is art! I love art galleries and have been fortunate to have had some of my work exhibited. Unfortunately, art and exhibitions tend to be very time consuming.

Questions from EmptyFragrance:  

9. What was your motivation to turn to ambient/synth work? What about it captured your attention as a musician as opposed to other more traditional forms of music? 

    I had been listening to synth music long before I began to write it. What I like about sampling and synthesizers is the huge palette of sounds and the ability of modern technology to allow a musician almost unlimited possibilities of creating soundscapes, from the sound at there disposal. The ability to trigger other folks imagination by my music is such a privilege. I think of it like having colour added to a palette that had been up until then only grey tones.

10. Many of your albums carry themes from Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone. What about this series impacted your music? How did you progress from ambient/electronic synths into fantasy themed music, and how much did these books influence your recording/creativity process? 

    When I started to read Moorcock and Tolkien, and many others, I suddenly discovered there were other worlds and universes I could disappear into. Up until that moment the world around seemed to be a very gray place. I realised how limited my thinking had been. Such huge influences became my sources of inspiration. Another big influence was the first time I saw Frank Frazzetta’s artwork for the Conan books by Robert E Howard. I spent hours just looking at the art in wonder and some part of me aspired to be an artist. You have to remember that back in the seventies There was not the selection of Fantasy books that exist now. Just a few titles, and most of these were SCi-FI. I enjoyed the Frank Herbert Dune books, and some Robert Heinlein. But not much beyond that.

11. Were there other artists in your periphery in the electronic scene that were also trending in this direction around the turn of the decade that influenced you? 

    I don’t think so. My influences were Klaus Scultze and Tangerine Dream and a few others. There were a few British musicians I heard at the time but I wasn’t particularly impressed by and of them. I suppose I knew exactly what I wanted to do, musically speaking and I worked in isolation toward that goal.

12. The King of the Golden Hall is my favorite album of yours, and I wondered what drew you back to essentially remake/rewrite the album so many years later (I love both iterations by the way)? Do you have a favorite release that you look back on as being your best work? 

    Hah, yes. I think I always liked what I did on KGH more than Where Shadows Lie. It is a work I am always returning too. In fact there is material on that album older than Shadows. But I don’t have a personal favourite. In fact I rarely listen to my own work. As soon as an album is finished and Mastered I move on to other ideas and the next one.

13. Lastly, what are your top 5 favorite fantasy series/books? 

    That is really difficult because I don’t have so much time now for reading.

    Obviously, Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion are works I return too. I don’t read Moorcock at all these days. No time, and there are philosophies in his works that I profoundly disagree with. Moorcock, unlike Tolkien and Lewis, was/is an atheist. I like the idea of the conflict between Law and Chaos, because this is what we see all the time in the world around us, and if you have eyes to see, also in the worlds beyond ours. I believe in a Multiverse. But his idea that the human spirit/soul was nothing more than impersonal energy, the same idea we see in Star Trek, I find offensive. That is not because of my Christian beliefs, I had already rejected Moorcocks philosophy whilst I was a Heathen/Pagan. I already believed in the immortality of the Soul before I became a Christian. Anyway, I am off topic. I did enjoy the series of books by David Eddings, and a work of fiction by C.S. Lewis called the Great Divorce. My top five favourite books would be those I would read again and again. I did enjoy the Sandman Graphic novels by Neal Gaiman. There are probably many others, Wind in the Willows. My favourite books remain works of Fantasy and High Adventure.