Nosferatu: The Vampyre [Original Soundtrack] cover

Nosferatu: The Vampyre [Original Soundtrack]

Released

After working with director Werner Herzog on 1972’s Aquirre, the Wrath of God, German atmosphericists Popol Vuh were again drafted in for Herzog’s 1979 remake of 1922 silent movie Nosferatu: the Vampyre. In many respects, Herzog’s film was an homage to F.W. Murnau’s expressionist masterpiece, but the soundtrack took a more radical approach to the classic vampire story. Florian Fricke had at this point moved away from electronic textures, and here piano, acoustic guitars and sitar make up a sombre, elegiac meditation on loneliness and spirituality which on screen gave a hitherto overlooked pathos and humanity to the tale’s titular monster.

Chris Catchpole

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