HDK 184 † DAN J. SCHULTE “Shadows of the Underworld” Vol. 2 CASSETTE

When HDK began its activities and released the first cassettes of Kobold e Gnoll, it was clear to everyone that the combination of dungeon-synth and fantasy role-playing games was the right fit. Since then, the label has never stopped considering dungeon-synth as the optimal soundtrack for role-playing sessions, adventure video games, and fantasy board games. Perhaps some liked this idea, others did not… but it does not matter now: we would like to emphasize that HDK… invented nothing new!

A few years before Kobold‘s “Cave of the Lost Talisman,” in fact, a musician from Palm Spring, California, named Dan J. Schulte, self-produced a handful of albums of ambient music explicitly inspired by old Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules: in the three albums that make up his “Dungeon Trilogy,” each track has the title of a super-classic module dating back to Gary Gygax ‘s glorious early TSR production (late 1970s, early 1980s).

Shadow of the Underworld: Dan J. Schulte’s first collection in cassette.

Oddly enough, we think, these fantastic albums have never been produced in physical format. Perhaps it was time to remedy this!
HDK therefore wanted to create a cassette collection of all of Dan J. Schulte ‘s D&D-inspired productions: here is the first volume of “Shadow of the Underworld,” containing nine magniloquent sessions of underground exploration the way we old-school dungeon-crawling fans like it!

Legendary artwork for an epic album: collaboration with PLASTIBOO

This important production deserved artwork to match the beauty and originality of the music.Therefore, we approached one of the most brilliant and famous dungeon-devotee artists of recent years, the great PLASTIBOO, author of the two VERMIS volumes that every explorer of the mysterious recesses of the earth must have on the shelves of his library!