Yes, finally, a mere 45 years after this was originally recorded, the soundtrack to this classic Horror movie is commercially available for the first time. As some soundtrack nuts will know it was previously available on the Library album "Strange Location" but this is its debut as Witchfinder General.
It is being released as part of a series of archive re-issues from the De Wolfe Music Library and the library's archivist Joel Martin managed to find the original quarter Inch master tapes that even contained two out-takes that didn't get used in the original film.
The CD comes with a very informative booklet that also has plenty of stills from the film and tells the story of its production and the various names it was released under, so that I need to say to any American readers that you may have seen this film as The Conqueror Worm but that version had a different soundtrack and this is the soundtrack for the European version.
So what is the music like if you don't have the film to scare the hell out of you while hearing it? Well it plays like a modern classical album and stands up well next to other similar albums put out in the period such as John Cale and Terry Riley's Church Of Anthrax. It is full of strings that build dramatically and then fall away and it also contains brass stabs aplenty and portentous drums.
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The cues are often quite short; something like Hanging From The Tree conjures up all sorts of horror in just 56 seconds but listened to as an album that doesn't matter as it works wonderfully as one 50 minute piece of music with all sorts of dips and turns and strings that feel like galloping horses as Master Loach Goes to Lavenham.
This is an essential addition for any soundtrack collectors and many fans of moody and mysterious classical music will also love this album. Now, I'm off to go and watch the film again and get properly frightened.
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