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•	2001 Album

•	2001 Album

Outside of several source-like interruptions, the score for Shadow of the Vampire meanders reflectively in murky depths for its entire length, with only two or three bright spots worthy of specific mention. While the performance by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales is certainly adequate in its accuracy and power, achieving the level of necessary intensity with ease at times, the players' lack of dynamic romantic embrace is a troublesome element that may have been intended by the composer. But it is this absence of genuine fright and awe, even the moments of dark delight, that causes the score for Shadow of the Vampire to float off into an uninteresting cloud of ambiguity. There are a few areas in which Jones excels greatly in Shadow of the Vampire, all technical. His emulation of Eastern European sensibilities in his tone, rhythms, and progressions, is appropriate and unmistakable. His re-creation of the violin performances that accompanied such old horror films is well interpolated into many cues. At the same time, however, he neglects the romantic, gothic, and brooding element of the vampire's demeanor, causing the work to convey only a cold chill without any sense of attachment that such scores otherwise attempt to attain. The lack of tonal accessibility in almost every cue is to be expected; it was a trademark of that specific period of music, and the film's dark story requires a certain amount of egregiously dissonant activity. Without the necessary gothic drive and power, however, the remaining music hovers in the ungrounded treble region without seemingly clear direction. Cues for opulent societal scenes, like the sung "Herr Doktor" and the elegant piano and violin duet in "A Concert in Wismar," are distractions from the otherwise consistent narrative. A couple of waltz pieces sprinkled throughout, which offer, ironically, the most outward character in the score, are likewise necessary but create a fragmented listening experience. In the mass of the brooding underscore, the lack of a recurring thematic identity for either of the two characters leads to several underdeveloped motifs that often wash away into near silence.

The lack of engaging narrative arc in the music for Shadow of the Vampire is a pivotal detriment. In fact, there are over ten minutes on this album that are so inaudible that your stereo will need to be turned way up in volume just to hear the strings and woodwinds quiver and flutter, not to mention the subtle effects taken directly from the final cut of the film. Those sound effects and dialogue present another problem with the album presentation. The film has plenty of classic lines of dialogue to be included on the album, including the classic "...I'll eat her later" banter, and yet none of them was chosen for inclusion. Instead, both elements mixed extensively throughout the album are presented at such low volumes and distant clarity that they become a form of percussive accompaniment for the orchestra. For the lengthy passages of very sparse underscore, these mixings are fine in concept despite the fact that their low volume sometimes makes transforms them into distracting whispers. At other points, laughing, applause, or footsteps will suddenly interrupt the music, clipping the end of a cue without warning. The opening of the album, though, is an exception; the combination of a bell tolling, screaming of a woman, footsteps, and frantic voices was a good way to start things off even though they were mixed too softly as well. Overall, the Pacific Time Company album always had many peculiarities. From the dissonant and minimalistic meanderings of the score to the constant intervention of dialogue and sound effects, the album also suffers from an illogical choice of arrangement and slightly incorrect track attribution in the notes. Other tracks seem mislabeled upon a casual listen. The two tracks titled "The Bunker" are identical. A 2021 remastering of the same contents by Wave Theory Records corrects some of these ills by retaining the opening sound effects but better emphasizing Jones' score thereafter. Ultimately, Shadow of the Vampire offers only two truly strong cues worthy of compilation, though. Outside of the marginally engaging crescendos of powerful strings and woodwinds in "The Light of the Sun" and late in "Title Music," there isn't enough interesting and compelling material to pull this awkward experience from the dreary depths of dismal melancholy.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download