8 Tracks: Of Chilling Ambience & Horror With Gallops

This piece scores one of my favourite scenes in cinema, the opening shot of Aguirre and his band of conquistadors and slaves descending a colossal Peruvian mountainside en route to the fabled El Dorado. Popol Vuh’s use of Mellotron-style choral
voices here is stunning and makes the scene, in my opinion. The choral organ used was apparently handmade by Herbert Prasch in Munich and was first used by Amon Düül on ‘Tanz Der Lemminge’ before being hunted down by Florian Fricke. It’s likely this instrument is gathering dust and won’t be committed to tape again. I love that.

The main title theme from Andrzej Zulawski’s surrealist 1981 eventual video nasty ‘Possession’. The track has a really sinister, industrial futurist vibe to it and opens the film perfectly. It hasn’t dated badly either, to my ears. If you haven’t seen this then do it, if only to see Sam Neill going full bananas. Look out for the subway scene, too!

Not an obvious choice here, but probably my favourite of his soundtracks. I think the film is very underrated too, some great ideas. Unfortunately, people just wanted to see more of Michael Myers at the time. The menacing synth sounds in this are very Carpenter/Howarth but it has something that their other work doesn’t have, for me. I love the way the flickering morse code arps compliment the opening title graphics. Beautiful.

Herrmann’s score for De Palma’s awesome, Vertigo-indebted ‘Obsession’. This is one of Herrmann’s best and I believe it’s the penultimate score he did (Taxi Driver being the last). His use of strings and dissonance never fails. But I particularly love the use of choral sounds in this.

I read about Artemiev’s working relationship with Tarkovsky recently. Apparently, Artemiev was very much ‘left to it’ by the director. Tarkovsky wouldn’t listen to the score whilst it was in progress, which caused a lot of stress for the composer as he was working himself to the bone on something that could eventually be scrapped. It worked out in the end, though. The combo of glistening ANS synthesiser and traditional Persian instruments shouldn’t work, but it does.

I’ve not seen this film, but I was put onto the soundtrack by the ever-excellent Finders Keepers label. The strings are beautiful in this, but when the gliding choral parts enter it really takes you to a different place. Ahead of its time.

Like many in my generation I was first exposed to this when Dilla flipped it on ‘Phantom of the Synths’. The melodies and instrumentation in this are gorgeous. And Moroder’s production (as always) is world-class. Those cheeky, kitsch disco toms are such a nice touch too.

Absolute classic body-horror. Love the aesthetic and the atmosphere. Probably my favourite of Cronenburg’s output (closely followed by The Brood!) The soundtrack doesn’t get enough love though for my money. The digital/Synclavier-ness of this is really cold and upfront but that suits the film to a tee. It’s great to see these types of sounds coming back over recent years too.