Royalty Free Dark / Somber Music

Dark hypnotic eighties style retro synthwave track with lots of analog synth sounds, arpeggios and vintage 80s drum sounds

Laid back, jazz blues track with a more modern rock sensibility. Yearnful male vocals feature over smooth groove rhythm, with a variety of mellow punctuating elements - synth hits, jazz blues guitar leads, vibraphone .... Downbeat and relaxed, it's a song about being together with someone that is undoubtedly optimistic yet still has an emotional underlying angst in feeling.

Enchanting orchestral epic. Magical and mysterious in its gently flowing piano lines and shimmering high strings, it builds on the theme with faster string ostinato and legato melodies, gradually turning into a deeper, more epic interpretation with added brass, woodwind and percussion. Without limiting yourself to the fantasy genre as it works for many other situations, think more 'fairies and elves showing their powers' than 'horsemen of the apocalypse'.

Rhythmic soundscape, built on synth pads, arpeggiated leads and warped textures. 16th note delay creates constant movement. Overall, a slightly eerie, brooding atmosphere.

Laid back soft rock track. A bluesy clean guitar lead becomes the focus after a bass and drum intro, backed also by gated synth pads and accents. The steady driving backbeat grounds the piece, the reverb and effects open it up to create an overall cool, chilled vibe with a sense of purpose and optimism.

Soothing but mysterious orchestral track. Arpeggiated piano and strings start classically, but a theremin lead takes things to an unexpected level of mystical contrast. Elegance and majesty is constant due to the warm orchestration throughout, with a deliberate unease and suspense created by the unusual instrumentation and melodies.  

Calming cinematic ambience tinged with a melancholic reflection. At heart, it's a minimalist track of simple, reverbed guitar gradually being overtaken by soft arpeggiated piano, gentle strings and a soulful cello lead to become a soothing escape into another world, albeit one which hints at unknown wonders and potential darkness. Slow and methodical with a dreamlike quality.

Minimalist neo classical track, featuring piano and violin. A soft arpeggiated piano intro lays the bed for a whistful solo violin entry, full of yearning and reflection. Interpersed with pizzicato, it's the violin that sings the song over the ever constant piano accompaniment, creating a feeling of suspense, wonder and fragility. A dark piece full of intrigue.

Who doesn't love a huge epic with searing strings and majestic brass? This is it, with a little extra oomph. It's a builder, going from soft string ostinato into a drop of dramatic proportions to introduce the main theme: a steadily grandiose and heroic melody, helped largely by percussive hits, deep, deep braams, and marcato strings. Then double it. With searing strings and plenty of horns. An emotional triumph.

Sometimes it's the innocent simplicity that hides the darkest terrors. With a menacing detuned piano theme penetrating your brain over a backdrop of atmospheric vinyl crackle, string swarms and percussive metal hits, this horror trailer track has the brooding sense of witnessing something you really don't want to see. Very dark, very atmospheric, and very horror.

A light acoustic track with ghostly theremin synth lead and arpeggiated acoustic guitar. Builds up only slightly through added piano and percussion. A little dark and mysterious in feeling, with hints of optimism.

Dark orchestral hybrid track. Not even a tribute to a familiar 007 theme, this holds its own as a gritty, passionate piece featuring well crafted popular elements of cinematic music: string ostinato, deep brass and pumping rhythms. Brooding, rich and dramatic, if crime was a turbulent love story, this would be its theme.

Dreamy lo-fi chillout track. Heavily effected electric guitar takes the lead role as a spacey melody maker, weaving simple, reverbed hooks into a tapestry of rich chordal textures and lo-fi beat. Very open and clean, with a trippy, ambient nature designed to provoke reflection and relaxation.

An beautiful acoustic guitar instrumental with background male vocals and a nostalgic feel

A soft, melancholic acoustic track, featuring guitar, piano and strings. Opening with arpeggiated guitar accompanying a simple, yearning melody, the piece plays on the theme as it builds with piano and eventually the legato strings to solidify the overall ambience of regret. Bittersweet in its mood, with lots of question/answer phrasing, the piece is a thoughtful study of a traumatised mind.

Gloriously ambient track with a heavy cinematic leaning. Building a bed of tension through soft piano and strings, it breaks into an expressive outpouring of reflective emotion, using a dynamic cello lead and chiming guitar. It's a theme that returns with more complexity and intensity, but manages to keep it's fragile, delicate sensitivity with a calming yet weighty vibe. Slow paced, and all the more powerful for it.

A short, spooky horror theme with a vintage, lo-fi feel to evoke those darkest of unwanted memories from times best forgotten. Hollow and brittle, but hypnotically repetitive, there are small subtleties to lift it - detuned instruments, dropouts, jagged string stabs and pizzicato - with a near constant deep brooding bass to rumble your bones. An edgy and mysterious, fast moving track that works great as a tension builder or scene setter.

An emotional, inspiring piano instrumental with orchestral background and a powerful, resonant percussion

A melancholic acoustic folk love song with emotional male vocals, rich pads and subtle glockenspiel melodies in the background

A steady electro track. Slightly mysterious thanks to the chord progression, creating movement due to its techno beat and heavy use of dynamic synth parts.