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

Recommended by

Suggestions
Zeit cover

Zeit

Tangerine Dream
Turiya Sings cover

Turiya Sings

Alice Coltrane
Psycho cover

Psycho

National Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Herrmann
Ritual cover

Ritual

Jon Hopkins
Dusk cover

Dusk

Pulse Emitter