CLEVELAND, Ohio — August 21, 2026 — Trailblazing dark symphonic composers Midnight Syndicate have officially released their new studio album, Plankett’s Grove, available today on physical media and all major streaming platforms. Celebrated as foundational audio architects of the haunt, Halloween, and tabletop gaming industries, duo Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka return with an 18-track immersive orchestral work designed to transport listeners into a shadowy realm of gothic mystery and dark fantasy. Building on nearly three decades of pioneering “soundtracks to imaginary films,” Plankett’s Grove delivers the signature blend of orchestral composition, haunting melodies, and immersive sound design that has defined the group’s legacy.
When Midnight Syndicate emerged in the late 1990s, Halloween music was largely limited to novelty pop tracks, basic sound-effects tapes, hard-to-find movie soundtracks, or vocal-driven darkwave. Douglas and Goszka broke new ground by blending full-scale cinematic orchestration with immersive ambient soundscapes—offering a level of production quality previously unheard in the niche genre. This distinct instrumental approach quickly established Midnight Syndicate as the premier music supplier for the professional haunted attraction, amusement park, and Halloween retail industries, while simultaneously filling a crucial void for board and tabletop role-playing gamers seeking pure atmospheric soundtracks for their sessions.
“Our last full-length release was inspired by a themed 19th-century European nightclub, so we thought we’d take things in the opposite direction for this one and set it in a world that is far more rural and secluded,” said Gavin Goszka.
“We asked our fan community, Legions of the Night, where they’d like to see us go next, and that definitely helped make the decision. Folk horror is a treasure trove of creative inspiration with so many directions you can go,” added Douglas. “It made exploring this new section of the Midnight Syndicate world both rewarding and exciting.”
“Plankett’s Grove is set near the town of Illswich. Rather than making the town abandoned, where the listener’s task would be to uncover the mysteries of what once was, we decided it might be interesting to keep this location very much active and alive, although not without its own share of dark secrets,” said Goszka.
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For nearly three decades, Cleveland-based composers Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka—known collectively as Midnight Syndicate—have been world-renowned pioneers in dark symphonic music, gothic ambient soundscapes, and cinematic world-building. Known as foundational audio architects of the haunted house, Halloween, and TTRPG music genres, Douglas and Goszka revolutionized the concept of a band that creates “soundtracks to imaginary films” by blending full-scale orchestral compositions with film-quality ambient sound design beginning in the 1990s.
Since 1997, Midnight Syndicate has earned an international reputation as premier audio suppliers for the haunted attraction and amusement park industries. Industry analysts estimate that at peak adoption, 75% to 90% of commercial haunted attractions globally utilized Midnight Syndicate’s music. Their compositions have been featured extensively across major global entertainment brands and international theme parks—including Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights (spanning multi-decade collaborations and custom vinyl releases), Cedar Point’s HalloWeekends, Busch Gardens, Six Flags, Ripley Entertainment, Europe’s Alton Towers and PortAventura, Spirit Halloween, and Hot Topic. They have been featured on broadcast programming from SiriusXM’s Scream Radio, NBC, CBS, ABC, SyFy, and ESPN, as well as live stage shows by horror music icons The Misfits and King Diamond.
In 2003, Midnight Syndicate broke ground in the tabletop gaming community by collaborating with Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro to produce the first official soundtrack to the legendary role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. The album pioneered the use of atmospheric music tailored specifically for tabletop gaming sessions, establishing a precedent that influenced the modern TTRPG music genre. The band’s cultural legacy has been recognized with multiple Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, as well as ENNIE and Origins gaming awards. Their album Out of the Darkness was included in Rue Morgue Magazine’s list of “50 Essential Horror Albums” that defined genre music over the decades.
The world of Midnight Syndicate encapsulates a dark ambient discography spanning over sixteen studio albums, multimedia live theater productions, original motion picture projects—including the feature film The Dead Matter (produced by Midnight Syndicate Films, directed and co-written by Douglas)—and scores to films like The Rage and Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan. Midnight Syndicate operates independently under Entity Productions and Linfaldia Records. Maintaining total creative control over their catalog, Douglas and Goszka continue to produce fine-art conceptual pressings and immersive album universes that captivate fans of horror, fantasy, and classical crossover music worldwide.
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