Nosferatu: The Vampyre [Original Soundtrack]

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.