Dark Ambient Halloween Music
March 3rd, 2009 by John Wolfe
A great online Halloween friend, Victor of Haunted Hot Sauce, recently emailed me about an awesome, dark ambient music project called “The Starwheel.” “The Starwheel” is the brainchild of Swedish artist, Kammarheit. The album has been described as meditative, evocative, melancholic, and cosmic-tinged by several online reviews. For almost two years, I’ve been slowly progressing into the dark ambient, European music scene. And, I’ve got to tell you – I really enjoy playing a variety of these albums against the backdrop of my haunt on Halloween night.
The music subtly creeps you out by connecting with your emotions and manages to build intensity through atmosphere rather than using fake, over-the-top sound effects. This is the main reason I’ve continued to move away from using store bought Halloween “screamer” CD’s.
Spooking an audience is more easily achieved through stimulating the mind and showing less, as opposed to more – be it visually or musically. Creating any atmosphere is an art form which consists of taking the individual on a journey of psychological seduction – and, composers like Kammarheit are true masters of doing so.
These albums also provide the perfect mood for creating props! I love playing a variety of ambient music during my forays into mache.
Check out Last.fm where you can listen to “The Starwheel” in its entirety, for free.
Photo Source: Last.fm
Posts Related to dark Ambient Halloween Music
March 4th, 2009 at 4:54 am
I’m with ya on the “screamer” cds. My aunt use to play hers every Halloween. It was a bore and didn’t really care for it.
March 4th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Andrea,
Two years ago, I used two separate stereos on Halloween night. One contained a burned CD of my favorite (favorite, meaning tolerable) “screamer” tracks and the other played dark ambient music. Last year, I phased the “screamer” out completely and now I’m strictly into using these great European projects. While they aren’t specifically oriented for Halloween, I think they work beautifully.
Did you get a chance to listen to “The Starwheel”?
March 6th, 2009 at 9:23 am
The only time a person is alone at a Halloween party is when they are in the bathroom. I lit the bathroom solely in red and blue lights and played a dark ambient music soundtrack combined with a secondary track of creepy echo-ey whispers. The good news was that everybody that went in there was visibly shaken when they exited. The bad news was that most of my guests opted to use the upstairs bathroom…and others searched the bathroom to find the source of the music so they could turn it off. I had to put the CD player in the drop ceiling panels to keep it from being turned off. Talk about a captive audience…
March 6th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Victor,
I never thought of creeping people out while they do their business!
That’s an awesome idea. Is that whisper track the one that’s made to sync up with several speakers? I saw something like that online a few years ago and it was capable of creating this amazing, creepy surround sound effect.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
The whispers I used were from my extensive sound library…not sure where they all came from although recently I have been successful in extracting all of the audio files from creepy PC games such as DOOM3 and Left 4 Dead! Some AMAZING stuff in those games…all professionally produced. And it’s stuff that few have actually heard, at least in a Halloween party setting…keeps ‘em guessing.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Very cool! That’s one of the same things I love about the European, dark ambient music – most people in the states aren’t aware of it – at least not trick-or-treaters or parents on Halloween night. The effect is much more pronounced when someone isn’t distracted by humming a tune they’ve heard a thousand times before.
March 7th, 2009 at 4:42 am
I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet but I will.
March 7th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Andrea,
Please, let me know what you think. I’m curious if you think it’s better than the “screamer” CD’s.