The Horror of Grimtooth Castle came from a collaboration with Robert Jonsson, host of the Swedish actual play RPG podcast Altors Vidder. Robert joined my Storytellers tier on Patreon with a clear brief: dark, living music for his Demoncastle campaign.
The setting is Grimtooth Castle — a place originally built by a family of trapmakers, now taken over by a demonic infestation. Robert described it as an organism more than a building: veins and tentacles growing through the walls, flesh and stone merged together. I wanted the score to feel the same way. Rather than writing music that sits outside the horror and underscores it, I wanted it to feel like part of the environment — something that breathes and shifts alongside the story.
That led to the main structural idea for the album: recurring themes that transform as the story progresses. The same motifs appear in different forms depending on where the campaign is, getting darker or more desperate as things worsen. It’s something I try to do with the longer Storytellers projects — give them a musical arc, not just a set of cues.
The ensemble for this recording was one of the stronger ones I’ve worked with. Through Musiversal I brought in Ben Trigg and Daniel Chouinard on cello, Jory Lane on violin, and Vigilance Brandon on flugelhorn. The flugelhorn was something I hadn’t used in this kind of context before. It sits in a register between the strings and has a mournful, almost human quality that adds something the strings alone wouldn’t. It gives the sadder parts of the score a distinct color that I ended up leaning into.
The cover illustration was created by Thomas OKOK Gunnarsson (Instagram) and provided by Robert — it fits the album well.
If you understand Swedish, Robert’s podcast is worth exploring: Altors Vidder on Spotify or the Altors Vidder website.