Klaus Schulze - Angst (1983)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Klaus Schulze - Irrlicht (1972)

Richard Wahnfried - Time Actor (1979)

Michael Shrieve with Kevin Shrieve and Klaus Schulze - Transfer Station Blue (1988)

Klaus Schulze - Shadowlands (2013)

Synth legend Klaus Schulze's excellent soundtrack to the supremely dark Angst, which, hey! You can watch it right now if you fancy a slow-burning portrait of a psychopath on a bad day.

Track listing:

1. Freeze

2. Pain

3. Memory

4. Surrender

5. Beyond

6. Silent Survivor [Bonus]

Some would surely die of fear. They couldn't stand being tortured that way.

Similar listening:

Jay Chattaway - Maniac (1980)

Biosphere - Insomnia (1997)

François-Eudes Chanfrault - À l'intérieur (Inside) (2008)

I've been known to refer to Inside as the scariest movie I've ever seen, with the caveat that my viewing experience was very much enhanced by context. After finally giving it a rewatch a couple weeks back, the jury may be out, but I'm not retracting my statement. I can say for sure that it is insanely brutal. 

Also, the soundtrack's great. Very subtle and minimal. Dark synths, serrated drones, pulsing rhythms, elegiac chamber pieces. There's an extended dialogue-free sequence near the end of the movie where a bunch of terrible things happen without any dialogue, and it's soundtracked entirely by a two-chord synth figure. It's sick as fuck. Go watch it if you can find it -- I torrented it.

Track listing:

1. Arctic Love

2. Memories, Part I, II, & III

3. Dark Beats

4. Discovery

4. Low/High

5. Memories (Redux)

6. Memories (Final)

7. Square Pads for an Eternal Dawn

Open the door, Sarah.

More scary shit:

Jay Chattaway - Maniac (1982)

Mark Korven - The Witch (2016)

Gianni Ferrio - Perversion Story (1969)

The soundtrack to Lucio Fulci's very first piece of giallo, Una sull'altra (aka Perversion Story). Encompasses big band jazz, cool jazz, psych pop, deranged carnival tunes, and general abstract horror creepiness.

Track listing:

1. The Mess

2. Tell Me

3. Strip for a Teenager

4. Hammond Psychedelic Concert

5. I Love You More Than What You Do

6. Psychedelic Concert

7. L.S.D. Atmosphere

8. Old Little Theme

9. To End

10. All I Need

11. Psychedelic Concert

12. Harry's True

13. Violence for Sax

14. L.S.D. Atomsphere

15. London Ride

16. Helen, My Love

17. In a Strange Mood

18. A Man in the Shadow

This is a crazy man

More Italo-horror soundtracks:

Nora Orlandi - Il Dolce Corpo di Deborah (Colonna Sonora Originale) (1968)

Bruno Nicolai - Tutti i Colori del Buio (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1972)

Jack DeJohnette featuring Lester Bowie - Zebra (1985)

By request, here's Zebra by drummer Jack DeJohnette and trumpeter Lester Bowie. Atmospheric, synth-y slow-burners comprising tastefully wandering solos over laid-back, sparse, at times African-sounding grooves. Not counting this one, I've posted at least 10 albums featuring Jack DeJohnette, so it's really about time that I did one of his solo records.

Track listing:

1. Ntoro I

2. Jongo

3. Aho

4. Kpledzo

5. Ntoro II

Strange shapes

You might also enjoy:

Rainer Brüninghaus - Continuum (1983)

Mark Isham - Castalia (1988)

Alessandro Alessandroni - Original Soundtrack Music for the Movies: Suor Omicidi · Lo Strangolatore di Vienna · Lady Frankenstein (1999)

Three horror soundtracks from Italian composer Alessandro Alessandroni. The comp was released in 1999, but Lo Strangolatore di Vienna and Lady Frankenstein both came out in '71, and Suor Omicidi in '79; as far as I can tell, none of them have ever been issued on their own. Ghostly choral arrangements, grainy synths, cinematic string pieces, creepy jazz-inflected psychedelia, and more that will definitely scratch your hallucinatory, gore-loving, 70s-Italo-horror itch. I've never seen Lo Strangolatore di Vienna (and the soundtrack's easily the weakest of the three) but the other two I can wholeheartedly recommend.

The track listing's pretty perfunctory and boring, so find it here if you like.

Only the monster she made could satisfy her strange desires!

Also listen to:

Nora Orlandi - Il Dolce Corpo di Deborah (Colonna Sonora Originale) (1968)

Various Artists - The Films of Jean Rollin (1994)

Antoni Maiovvi - Shadow of the Bloodstained Kiss (2009)

Synthwave before they were calling it synthwave. I know it's weird to gatekeep a genre that's so blatantly referential, but it's gotta count for something that Maiovvi was doing this shit before Stranger Things turned everyone into synth fanatics a few years ago.

Track listing:
1. Nightmoves
2. Witchcraft
3. They Return
4. Interstellar Space Exploration
5. Velocity Central
6. 6000SEX
7. Plymouth Fury
8. Future Space Love Party
9. The Chase, Part 1
10. The Chase, Part 2

What's the boogeyman?

If you like this, listen to:

Umberto - From the Grave... (2009)

Pentagram Home Video - Who's Out There? (2014)

Nora Orlandi - Il Dolce Corpo di Deborah (Colonna Sonora Originale) (1968)

A pretty great soundtrack for a giallo film that I've never seen and doesn't seem to get the best reviews, which tend to center on the idea that the plot makes no sense, despite that being pretty much a given for Italian horror. Eerie, smoldering, late-night jazz with some hints of exotica and other weirdly perky diversions.

Track listing:

1. Marcel-Deborah

2. Night Story

3. Intimità

4. Ossessione

5. Il Valico

6. Molto Tempo Fa

7. Musica Bionda

8. I Robot

9. L'Imprevisto

10. Ginevra

11. La bandita

12. Croisette

Shallow breathing

Also consider listening to:

Bruno Nicolai - Tutti i Colori del Buio (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1972)

James Clarke - Mystery Movie (1974)

James Clarke - Mystery Movie (1974)

Breezy, quietly haunting, jazz-funk-rooted sounds from keyboardist/composer James Clarke. Sweet-ass grooves, breakbeats galore, fuzzed-out guitars -- essentially, a brilliant soundtrack for a blaxploitation or giallo film that never existed. And it looks like it got reissued just a few months ago and there are still copies available -- get yours here.

Track listing:
1. Mystery Prelude
2. Car Patrol (Title Sequence)
3. Breathless
4. Breathless (Short Version)
5. Waiting Game
6. Mystery Moll
7. Mystery Movement
8. The Heavies
9. Dirty Scene
10. Study in Fear
11. Empty Streets
12. Night Watch
13. Foot Patrol
14. Quiet Girl
15. Relaxed Scene
16. Routine Procedure
17. Quietness Sustained

Long burn the fire

You should also hear:

Stone Alliance -
Stone Alliance (1976)

Various Artists -
The Films of Jean Rollin (1994)

Chateau Flight - Les Vampires (2006)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Château Flight - Puzzle (2000)

Soundtrack for a silent French movie from 1915, composed for a series of screenings almost a century later. I'm taking a break from an intense study session to listen to and post this, so if you think I'm gonna put any effort into it, you got me fucked up.

8 untitled tracks

Bloodsuckers

You'd probably also enjoy:

Horror Inc. - Horrarama EP (2003)
+ I Plead Guilty (2004)

Padded Cell -
Night Must Fall (2008)

Charles Bernstein - A Nightmare on Elm Street (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1984)

Synth-fueled horror perfection. There's some stuff that kinda sounds like guitars but I'm pretty sure it's just more synthesizer magic. At this point in the franchise, Freddy Krueger hadn't really started incorporating pun-filled one-liners into his murder game, making it easily the most 'serious' entry in the series. It also contains arguably its two most iconic death sequences -- the one where slash marks start spontaneously appearing all over Tina while she spins around in mid-air, and the one where Johnny Depp's character gets swallowed by his own bed and transformed into a physics-defying cascade of carnage. Plus, the bathtub scene. With all this on-screen excellence, it's easy to forget, or not even realize in the first place, how great the soundtrack is.

Track listing:
1. Prologue
2. Main Title
3. Laying the Traps
4. Dream Attack
5. Rod Hanged, Night Stalking
6. Jail Cell
7. Confrontation
8. Sleep Clinic
9. Terror in the Tub
10. No Escape
11. School Horror, Stay Awake
12. Lurking
13. Telephone Terror
14. Fountain of Blood
15. Evil Freddy
16. Final Search
17. Run, Nancy

I could be bounded in a nutshell
And count myself a king of infinite space
Were it not that I have bad dreams

More 80s horror:

John Harrison -
Creepshow (1982)

John Carpenter & Alan Howarth -
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1989)

Steven Schramm & Jonas Kvarnstrom - Music for Your Nightmare (1989)

Super-spooky synths and scary sounds. There's even yet another interpretation/appropriation of "Dis Irae", as featured in about 100,000 horror movies. I'm pretty sure that Music for Your Nightmare was recorded as a musically-driven SFX tape for playing in Halloween stores or haunted houses. Bet they didn't expect weird losers such as myself to be listening to it and writing about it 30 years later.

Track listing:
1. Torture Chamber
2. Terror Drive
3. Funeral Procession
4. Run for Your Life
5. The Forgotten Castle
6. Dungeon of Doom

[Evil cackling]

Also listen to:

John Harrison -
Creepshow (1982)

Accurst -
Fragments of a Nightmare (2004)

Mark Korven - The Witch (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2016)

Otherworldly score for a masterclass of tension and atmosphere. Following a stately, sorrowful opening theme, dissonant, droning strings slowly build to terrifying peaks, with clattering percussion and wordless choral vocals. I fucking loved this movie, and it's on Netflix so if you haven't seen it yet, 'tis the season. Also, notice that his last name is almost "Coven" -- obviously, it was meant to be.

Track listing:
1. What Went We
2. Banished
3. A Witch Stole Sam
4. Hare in the Woods
5. I Am the Witch Mercy
6. Foster the Children
7. Calen Is Lost
8. Caleb's Seduction
9. Caleb's Death
10. William and Tomasin
11. William's Confession
12. The Goat & the Mayhem
13. Follow the Goat
14. Witch's Coven
15. Isle of Wight (Traditional)
16. Standish (Traditional)

I will guide thy hand

Ennio Morricone - La Corta Notte
delle Bambole di Vetro (1971)

Kaija Saariaho - Verblendungen -
Jardin Secret I - Laconisme De L'Aile -
...Sah Den Vögeln (1985)

Voyag3r - Doom Fortress (2014)

Detroit synthwave. In addition to the expected pulsing Carpenter synths of horror, Voyag3r incorporate live drumming and riff-y, shredding guitars for a fuller, heavier, more organic sound than many of their wholly-synthesized peers.

Track listing:
1. Summoning the Forgotten One
2. One's True Intentions
3. Doom Fortress Escape
4. In the Hands of the Computers
5. Il Guanto Nero
6. Lord of Doom Fortress

Something nasty in the woods

You should also hear:

John Carpenter & Alan Howarth -
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1989)

Protector 101 -
Protector 101 (2011)

Umberto - From the Grave... (2009)

First album from one of the OGs of modern synthwave. When I first heard Umberto, his schtick -- making music for non-existent horror movies using synth maestros like John Carpenter and Alan Howarth as primary sources of inspiration -- was a new, even radical idea. As with anything cool and deceivingly simple, it's been done to death now. Don't get me wrong: I still love Perturbator, Dan Terminus, and GosT, but there are a whole lotta projects doing really boring takes on the same sound. Outside of all of this, though, Umberto reigns supreme.

Track listing:
1. Opening Titles
2. Running Blade
3. Forsaken Dawn
4. The Child
5. Dream Sequence
6. Intermission
7. It Came from the Swamp
8. Shower Scene
9. In the Name of Zuel
10. End Credits

Someone chasing someone through a house

More like this:

Jay Chattaway -
Maniac (1980)

Pentagram Home Video -
Who's Out There? (2014)

Bruno Nicolai - Tutti i Colori del Buio (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1972)

Stellar soundtrack work by Italian great Bruno Nicolai. Weeping strings, eerie piano and vibraphone, wordless female vocal melodies, dark psychedelia -- a more 70s Italian horror-sounding record, you could not ask for. And if you have the time, you should definitely watch the movie.

Note: This is the 2004 CD version.

Track listing:
1. Magico Incontro
2. Bambole
3. Medium
4. Magico Incontro
5. Insidia
6. Suggestione
7. Magico Incontro
8. Evocazione
9. Babole
10. Esorcismo
11. Oppresione
12. Magico Incontro
13. Ipnosi
14. Invasamento
15. Sabba
16. Incantesimo
17. Propiziazione
18. Insidia
19. Sabba
20. Inmateriale
21. Espiazione
22. Medium
23. Insidia
24. Magico Incontro
25. Insidia
26. Sabba
27. Magico Incontro
28. Magico Incontro

They're waiting for you

Similar listening:

Walter Rizzati -
Quella Villa Accanto al Cimitero (1981)

Various Artists -
The Films of Jean Rollin (1994)

Vangelis - L'Apocalypse des Animaux (1973)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Vangelis - The Dragon (1978)

Haunting ambient compositions from the great Vangelis. Much like The Dragon, the music here is pretty far removed from the man's bombastic signature sound. It is largely keyboard/synth-based, but it's sparse and elegiac -- slo-mo synth washes and shimmering Rhodes chords, often filled out by a single non-keyboard element such as acoustic guitar or French horn -- and includes practically no percussion.

Track listing:
1. Apocalypse des Animaux
2. La Petite Fille de la Mer
3. Le Singe Bleu
4. La Mort du Loup
5. L'Ours Musicien
6. Création du Monde
7. La Mer Recommencée

My face in the rain

If you like this, try:

Terry Riley -
Le Secret de la Vie (1974)

Giusto Pui -
Motore Immobile (1979)

AIR - Music for Museum (2014)

Gorgeous ambient instrumentals by French duo AIR. Recorded as part of an exhibit in the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Music for Museum is a positively sublime album -- easily my favorite of theirs since Talkie Walkie -- and since it's thus far only been released in a one-time vinyl pressing of a thousand copies, I'd pretty much be in dereliction of duty if I failed to post it here.

Track listing:
1. Land Me
2. Reverse Bubble
3. The Dream of Yi
4. Angel Palace
5. Art Tatoo
6. Kiss Volcano
7. Integration Disintegration
8. Octogum
9. North Cloud

How does it make you feel?

Also listen to:

Andy Partridge & Harold Budd -
Through the Hill (1994)

Borden, Ferraro, Godin, Halo, Lopatin -
FRKWYS 7 (2011)

Colin Towns - Full Circle (1978)

Evocative piano- and synth-based music for a horror movie that I've never seen. Love how ambient sound clips from the movies are utilized to create an immersive, narrative listen.

Track listing:
1. Full Circle (Main Theme) / The Park
2. Have You Got a Magnificent Problem? (Inside the Mental Home)
3. 'Pretty Men Are Very Receptive' (The Seance)
4. Kate (Opening Sequence)
5. Olivia
6. Love Scene
7. 'Magnus' - The Unwelcome Intrusion
8. Full Circle (Everything's Right Now)

The haunting of Julia

You should also hear:

Fabio Frizzi -
The Beyond (1981)

Walter Rizzati - Quella Villa
Accanto al Cimitero (1981)

Various Artists - The Films of Jean Rollin (1994)

Just re-watched The Living Dead Girl (aka La Morte Vivante) in all of its bloodsoaked glory, and I've been meaning to post this forever, so what better time than now? From dark psych to plaintive piano to synth-y creepers, they're all winners. I've only seen three of the movies -- Le Frisson des Vampires, Fascination, and the above -- and as far as self-serious, stiltedly acted, boob- and blood-filled French horror goes, they're all winners, too.

Track listing:
1. Génèrique
2. Le Château
3. Angoisse Temporelle
4. Samba des Vampires
5. Doux Réveil
6. La Cité Rouge
7. Envos Vers la Folie
8. Génèrique
9. Génèrique 2
10. Françoise Chante
11. Ville d'Amiens
12. Bruits et Voix dans In Cemetie
13. Fascination
14. La Valse Grinçante
15. La Vaise du Château
16. Apparation du Château
17. L'Amour des Deux Filles
18. L'Intérieur des Ecuries
19. La Morte Vivante
20. La Découverte du Château
21. Boîte à Musique
22. Frottement
23. Dans la Crypt
24. Bai Slow
25. Le Suicide
26. Perdue dans New York
27. Dialogue des Duex Filles
28. Thème à la Flûte De Pan
29. Poursuite dans New York
30. Dans Peul
31. Scene sur la Toit
32. New Jersey
33. Chœur Petites Filles
34. Chinatown
35. Banc-Titre Avec Thème
36. Pont de Brooklyn

It's awful. Those bodies over there.

You should also hear:

Terry Riley -
Le Secret de la Vie (1974)

Franco Leprino -
Integrati... Disintegrati (1977)

Pentagram Home Video - Who's Out There? (2014)

Pentagram Home Video is a London-based producer who creates dark, synth-based soundtracks to movies that never existed. According to the plot summary on his bandcamp, Who's Out There? would be a rip-off of the original Terminator if it, y'know, were an actual movie.

Track listing:
1. Pentagram Home Video Ident
2. Vision 1 / The Ocean
3. Opening Titles
4. Reel 2 / "Who's Out There?"
5. Vision 2 / The Beginning
6. Reel 4 / Across 10 Blocks
7. Reel 6 / Heavy Leather
8. Vision 3 / Night
9. The Pursuit
10. A Powerful Hallucinogen
11. End Credits

Do you think you'll ever be free?

More 80s horror-synth revivalists:

Zombie Zombie -
A Land for Renegades (2008)

Protector 101 -
Protector 101 (2011)