You can listen to my music and download it digitally at:
- Abandoned Graves (dungeon synth) Bandcamp page HERE
- Heavy Like A Crumbling Tower (dark ambient and dungeon synth) Bandcamp page HERE
You can follow my projects on Instagram at @abandonedgraves and @heavylikeacrumblingtower.
Cassette copies of my Abandoned Graves album Salvation (picture below) and Heavy Like A Crumbling Tower’s HLACT are available directly from me for $8 each (US) plus shipping. You can email me directly at jeff (at) lifeinthevinyllane.com – please let me know the mailing address so i can figure out the postage and provide you a total cost.
I debated for a long time about whether or not to include any links or references to my own music on Life In The Vinyl Lane. Initially I wanted to keep the two things separate, as I didn’t want it to seem like I was pushing my music on readers. At the end of the day, though, I obviously want people to hear my stuff, because otherwise why would I go through the effort of putting it on Bandcamp and making cassettes? And it’s not like letting you know about Abandoned Graves in any way takes blog space away from other artists.
Until recently my entire experience in playing instruments was one year of violin and one year of clarinet in grade school, and I’m old enough that, well, that was a VERY long time ago. For years I would tell myself, “you really should learn how to play an instrument”, and for years I did exactly nothing to move that idea forward. That is until I found myself in 2022 with an Amazon gift card in my hand after I’d started exploring dungeon synth. I figured what the hell and bought myself a Novation Launchkey Mini MIDI controller (I have subsequently upgraded to the Novation Launchkey 88 full-sized MIDI keyboard), which came with Ableton Live software to provide the instrument sounds and recording capabilities. The dungeon synth community often refers to the genre as having a “low barrier to entry”, and I’m a perfect example of that. From there Abandoned Graves was born, and within a few months I posted my debut track, “First Grave”, on Bandcamp.
After posting a few individual tracks, I had an idea for an album that follows a story arc based on a Dungeons & Dragons campaign I’d designed and run for my friends. It is the story of a world in which the goddess of Spring was abducted by the god of Winter and hidden away, leaving the people facing winter seasons that lasted six months at a time before giving way immediately to summer. Once per year Spring was allowed to select four individuals to try to solve Winter’s riddle and set her free, and this time she selected our four players – paladin Reginald Dubois (Andy), kenku wizard Kheree Shindtenr (Norberto), goliath cleric Turoc Stormcaller (Mrs. Life In The Vinyl Lane), and elf ranger Mixi Tal-orizzont (Tristen). They succeeded, though barely, and figured out the word that would set Spring free – Salvation. And that word seemed like the perfect choice for the album title.
I decided to release a cassette version of Salvation, so I had 50 copies pressed – 25 in silver shells and 25 in gold, individually numbered in the full edition of 50. Each cassette comes with a digital download, a copy of the riddle underlying the original game, and a 20-sided-die necklace. The cover image is a photo I took at the Cementerio de la Recoleta in Buenos Aires, Argentina of a statue of the Virgin Mary. It captured the sadness I imagined Spring felt being absent from the world.
I was thrilled to receive a positive review on The Dungeon In Deep Space blog which gave me a real boost of confidence as I continued to work on new songs. New music will certainly make its way to Bandcamp, so please follow the page to receive updates.
In 2026 I partnered with my friend Matteque on a new project called Heavy Like A Crumbling Tower, which blends dark ambient and dungeon synth. Most of our songs are created by Mattesque sending me a dark ambient track, which I then play over in a more dungon synth style. Mattesque then mixes and masters it all and viola. Our four-song EP HLACT came out in June 2026 on a limited edition (of 30) cassette.
You can email to jeff (at) lifeinthevinyllane.com. I’m also happy to answer questions you may have about putting out your own cassettes – it’s not as daunting as you might think, and I can highly recommend A To Z Audio (don’t let the very old school website be a cause for concern!) for your cassette manufacturing needs.
Trust me – if I can do this, so can you. So go out there and do it. And when you do, let me know, so I can go check it out, buy a copy from you, and maybe even write about it on Life In The Vinyl Lane.