Music for the adventure in your mind

I am pretty sure that a lot of GMs are using music to set the mood during their gaming sessions. I prefer epic soundtracks from computer games and/or movies. But using the music from major blockbusters is not without problems. Music usually triggers memories and even if the effect is sometimes intended you want your players to enjoy the story of your current adventure and not reminisce some movie. In order to broaden my repertoire of “gaming music” I checked out soundtracks from lesser known games and movies and finally I stumbled over “Erdenstern“. Erdenstern is the name of a german band that creates music especially for roleplayers. They have released several CDs and each CD has a special theme. “Into the Red” for example is battle/war-themed, while “Into the Dark” is perfectly suited for horror or gothic scenarios. They even tag each song, so that you can easily choose the correct tracks for the situation at hand. Erdenstern has gained some popularity in the german roleplayers’ scene but I think they are pretty unknown in the rest of the world. If you are looking for some fantasy-themed music, make sure you check out Erdenstern.
Erdenstern has released some bonus tracks for free, so you can check out their style before ordering the CDs.

Erdenstern – The River (Into the Gold bonus track)

You can download more tracks on their official site.