For decades John Williams’ fans have watched multiple remastering and reissues of scores from the Star Wars series, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, and Superman and while other scores on either sides of these also received releases, the question remained:  When will we get 1979’s Dracula?  The soundtrack album released at the time was just over 30 minutes of music—it is provided here in its entirety on disc two.  Finally, Varese Sarabande has managed to discover elements that allowed for a more complete stereo version under the more than able care of Mike Mattessino.  Their new limited edition 2-disc set brings us the film score for the first time with the second disc presenting an improved remastering of the original soundtrack

Dracula is one of the very rare times the composer scored a horror film, though arguably John Badham’s film tends toward Gothic romance.  Prior to this, there was the more psychological thriller, Images (1972), and the modern psychic thriller of The Fury (1978).  The latter’s edges have been warmed for Williams’ Dracula which came as Superman was being prepared for release and right before Spielberg’s 1941 and the second Star Wars film.  It is from that unbelievably fruitful collaborative period between the London Symphony Orchestra and Hollywood.  The result is thus a richer, more classical sound to the music.  In some respects, Williams’ approach is like a darker cousin to his Jane Eyre (1970).  And yet, those familiar with his scores of this time, will be able to discern a number of common tropes and scoring approaches that, while not borrowings, are certainly familiar thumbprints.

With almost double the music now available to hear, one can be struck by the way the primary love theme, which literally heats up the screen in “Night Journeys”, weaves its way through the score.  Thematic nods to Van Helsing give some additional variety, but it is the former that Williams uses to take us down the thread of an almost impossible love story.  The primary score presentation creates this sense of darkness and foreboding well with the minor-mode love theme adding an important hook along the way.  Also fascinating is hearing the way Williams creates atmosphere and dramatic support in many of the sequences that are in the 1-, 2-minute mark.

Disc one gives us a chance to hear the film versions of the opening titles and “Storm Sequence” (with some striking familiar Williams’ scoring motifs), “Night Journeys”, a slightly different “To Scarborough”, and an extended version of the finale, “Dracula’s Death”.  There are tracks that did not appear in the film and are included here along with some slight editing of shorter cues for better listening cohesion.  (These are unfortunately not marked on the track lists—only mentioned in the notes.)  Dark cues like “Meeting in the Cave” stretch the orchestra to the breaking point with some extremely high violin lines.  Some of the dense clusters of Close Encounters also appear from time to time in the score as well.  “Casting a Spell” is another quite fascinating dark cue exploring the swirls of the theme in the lower registers of the orchestra.  Alternates of the opening sequence and an extended “Love Scene” cue wrap things up well.

The way the music works through the film is then given some slight reworking for the 1979 soundtrack album which appears on disc two.  Williams tended to create albums that provided a more musical listening experience that in this case also featured some slightly different reworkings of material and different edits from what appeared in the film.  Seeing the track titles side-by-side with the film sequence is an interesting way to get a sense for how he put these soundtrack albums togetherr.  This is almost a case where one may want to hear the soundtrack album first.

Varese’s packaging here supports their intent to present a stellar release with the original booklet and photos in the CD case, and then an additional booklet with a host of film stills as well.  Easily one of the most anticipated film score releases for decades, Williams’ fans should be quite satisfied with this limited edition release.  It brings together some of the scoring techniques and musical approaches that have become familiar in those scores the composer wrote during this period.

The following is the first review here of music for a board game.  Twilight Creations most popular hobby game is Zombies!!! which first appeared in 2001 and has spawned a number of subsequent expansions to the base game and “updated” sequels.  It has managed to appear beyond board game stores in some main stream stores such as Target from time to time.  In it, players are survivors in a post-apocalyptic world and must try to reach a helipad before being killed by zombies, or at least kill 25 of them.  Thematically, it is a fairly good little game.

Music for board games is not necessarily a new thing but tends to be delivered electronically through the game, or game play itself.  In 2012, another hobby gaming company, Queen Games, release Escape: Curse of the Temple, a sort of Raiders-like cooperative game that came with its own CD that could be used as the timer featuring music and effects that intended to heighten the tension in the game play.  A couple years later they released Escape: Zombie City which comes with a 15-minute CD in this timed cooperative game with echoes of Twilight Creations’ earlier game.  It has not quite created a variety of copycats.

Whether Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka are board gamers or not, as Midnight Syndicate they certainly have a long history of crafting perfect music for horror-themed projects whether that is for an amusement park ride, film, or similar projects like their music for the 2005 role-playing game The 13^th Hour.  The music here appears in time for the fifteenth anniversary of Zombies!!!  It is not clear if the music here is specifically connected to the gameplay, but no doubt one could pop it on to enhance aspects of the game, or play in the background.  Some titles reference moments in the game itself.

“It Begins” has a good dark ostinato pattern that helps set the tone and moves us into the starker and moody “Where Did Everybody Go?”  There are brief motivic threads that continue to repeat creating a sense of thematic content while a variety of ideas gradually begin to swirl.  The music uses a variety of orchestral sounds with a few electronic growls and sound effects along the way.  The way the layering occurs can be rather fascinating as a quick string idea or a clarinet sound will suddenly take on a motive and play over the increasingly intense musical soundscapes (“Slight Miscalculation”).  Often an ostinato pattern becomes the base upon which a 1-2 measure idea will be introduced as sound effects and other sounds gradually expand the pitch material in held notes as the idea continues to pulse forward.  The album is designed to build gradually adding further unsettling moments as one moves toward the center and ratchet up tension as it builds to the end.  This is done with a good deal of restraint creating an at times subtler musical backdrop that is appropriately chilling.  Fans of Midnight Syndicate will find much to enjoy here as they tend to create the sort of modern Gothic horror music that works very well on its own.  The dramatic shape of the tracks here helps to set up the sort of backdrop that would work well in the game setting as well with a gradual increase of sound effects as needed in the center tracks (“Town Square”; “Raiding Todd’s Tool Shop”; “Fear”; “Adrenaline Rush”; “We’re Screwed”).  What is also worth noting is that the music is equalized well so that one can set a level and let it play.

The album features several cues based on earlier Midnight Syndicate film work (The Rage; Raven’s Hollow, The Dead Matter, Axe Giant).  You can download the album on retail outlets such as Amazon, CDBaby, and iTunes, the release, and others like it, can also be discovered at the group’s website:  www.MidnightSyndicate.com.