Coming from the Tolkien and Beowulf drenched aesthetic of dungeon synth, Druadan Forest shares more with the ambient cosmic acts of the 1970s and the post-black-metal soundscape experiments of the late 1990s, but aims more like a conventional ambient band for a circular but deepening mood.

Eschewing sounds with hard boundaries, Portals assembles itself from echoing synthetic sounds resembling pipes and strings, overlapping each other like mesh slowly tightening into cloth. These form loops which then layer themselves in internal variation.

Songs aim to establish a cycle and then show internal variation within it so do not come to a point so much as they come to ripeness and then fade away when all themes are stated, hiding in the boundaries between the larger patterns. This produces an ethereal atmosphere like the fleeting nature of thoughts and recollections of dreams.

Tags: druadan forest, dungeon synth