This new soundtrack for the restored film The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari is subtitled Narrative Film Music And Sound Design For Robert Wiene's Psychological thriller. As I haven't seen the film in eons, I can't say how well the soundtrack matches the images from this silent film from 1920 that is re-imagined by Karl Bartos who was in Kraftwerk during the band's classic years. Sadly my review copy of the soundtrack didn't include the actual film, but if you buy a copy it comes with the dvd.
The album and film naturally opens with the Prologue that has strings with a church organ that hints at darker things to come. As the reflective Scary Memories gently pass by as you're in a light sleep as you imagine the Atonal Floating feeling created by rising keyboards with cartoon runs of a solitary horn.
Full Of Life almost feels like CPR is being performed before the jaunty village band strike up to celebrate the survival. In The Town hall sounds like someone is creeping along like Jerry trying to elude Tom and snaffle the cheese as the timpani signals the impending danger.
At The Funfair takes the carousel sounds of a happy day out, complete with babbling voices and the odd whistle and interjection as the sounds from the various rides overlap. As a clock ticks to signify A Mysterious Crime has taken place, before they escape to be found once more At The Funfair riding the up and down horses as a Oompah band has some synths intruding on their sound.
The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari takes some classical strings and adds gamelan percussion as it becomes more like a march with an Arvo Part style choral backing. All the music slips away as the timpani heralds the arrival of a slow keyboard phased look through the Cabinet as the strings and voices start to rise.
Jane's Theme is full of romantic phrasing as if she's being gently caressed as the March grotesque hints that it might not be the sort of seduction she was hoping for, it then sounds like she is slipping into a coma and fading slowly away.
Shadows are impinging on our souls as the timpani rises once more to the surface, as the strings then start to send a Tragic Message of sorrow and pain feeling forlorn. Suspicion has strident strings punctuating the air as the danger is implicit, who or what can be behind the tragic messages that keep being sent.
The Plan begins to become clearer as a Dark Figure is assuaged in strings wandering towards Caligari's Theme that remains cartoon like, tip toeing through the scene. As finally we see the Arrest Of The Suspect it sounds like there is doubt in the air as Caligari's theme returns on a Xylophone expressing the hopes of a swift conviction.
Worried Jane is a slow plaintive piano piece. The Interrogation feels claustrophobic and as intense as it ought to be. While Jane's Fear seems to be the light sound of a carousel making her flashback to the scene of the crime that eventually goes into am upwardly spiralling synth line.
Francis's Observation is muted low key piano signalling Cesare's Attack And escape on a long-toned string plateau, it sounds like the chase is on. Will he be Safe And Sound in a new haven for crooks like him.
Francis At A Loss feels like the tape has got stuck and he's in a loop he can’t get out of. As Caligari's deception becomes ever clearer yet still opaque the woodwind Dance around the strings before the dark piano runs make the descent clearer.
The choir returns as you enter the Lunatic Asylum frantically trying to evade the straitjacket the sense of being doomed is clear. In Search of Truth you need a healthy string section with good classical knowledge, to prise the truth from whence it's hiding, while sounding like it comes from a 70's horror film.
Out In The Field isn't at all bucolic, more a disrupted dystopian field of vision. The Director Rants And Rages on a classic cinema organ pulling out all the stops along the way. Scary Memories 2 returns to haunt your dreams as new realities seem to become clearer.
Who's Mad Here has them looking round the asylum and realizing as ever there are more lunatics outside than in the asylum, with chattering voices attacked by tympanic majesty the low hiss burbles away. The realisation he will not be leaving any time soon causes Francis Rants And Rages at the injustice of it all, strings casting his downfall into the dank light. The Epilogue feels like church music for the titles to run over as some of the magisterial sounds return to echo the film that's just concluded.
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