Soundtrack Spotlight: Klaus Schulze - Angst (1983)

Directed by Gerald Kargl, Angst is one of those rare cinematic oddities in which the soundtrack is more well known than the film itself. This is most likely due to the fact that when it came out, Angst struggled to find a distributor due to the extreme nature of the picture, no doubt any potential buyers saw nothing but censorship headaches and lost money. In many ways they probably weren't wrong; the film is still yet to really find its audience, and cinema only really caught up to Kargl's vision with the release of Gasper Noe's I Stand Alone - no doubt heavily inspired by the earlier film.

The film charters the release of a psychotic killer from prison, and what he gets up to for the few hours afterwards. Needless to say, it isn't long before he ends up back behind bars. What sets Angst apart from other slasher nasties of the era is the manner in which it is filmed - the camera is constantly moving, be it around the killer (in a technique made more famous by the likes of Darren Aronofsky) or in some bravado long takes that mixed with the relentless voice over makes for a disturbing 70-odd minutes of cinema. Now, Angst isn't really the kind of film I would usually cover here (it's about as far from light entertainment as you can get), but I figured the soundtrack is something that is worth also looking at on its own.

Klaus Schulze is no doubt most well known to fans of European electronic music, as well as his stint with Tangerine Dream. He has apparently released over 60 albums spanning 5 decades of a career, which is an incredible achievement, and in his work on Angst, he produced some fairly haunting and memorable slices of electronica. The soundtrack consists of only 6 cuts, though the last piece, Silent Survivor, is just over 30 minutes long. The themes cover a range of emotions such as paranoia, confusion, fear and rage; and much like the film itself, all managed within a tight running time. I've included 3 tracks from the album here, which hopefully will give you an interest in seeking out either the rest of the score, or dig deep for the film itself.

Track 1 - Freeze

Freeze is definitely a haunting piece, playing through much of the early scenes in the film. Much like the ways that Tangerine Dream were often able to bring the psyche of the characters out within the films in which their music scored, the same effect applies here; the music feels like lost memories churning away inside the mind of a man who just doesn't exist on the same plane as the rest of us.

Track 2 - Beyond

Track 3  - Pain

Another fine piece of atmospheric electronica, here.