4 out of 5

Label: Library of the Occult

Produced by: ?

The fourth in a “series of haunting sounds to accompany the reading of Bram Stoker’s 1897 horror classic DRACULA.”

This is absolutely the closest Library of the Occult’s 7″es have gotten to – in my interpretation – actually syncing up with the proposed shtick. In fact… Timothy Fife essentially does his job a little too well.

To recap, my main issue of LotO is exemplified with this series: that often the concept of modern experimental / electronic artists scoring horror works is at odds with the overall presented tone, between the music itself, and generally the artwork as well. In wanting to score a piece from before the 20th century, the label especially bit off more than it could chew, as the instrumentation / styles are, at earliest, reaching back to the 60s. So we do get some synergy there, at least, with a couple of the 7″s maybe working for, say, Hammer horror or various other exploitation takes on Drac, but definitely not the original literary one.

However…

Fife finds the balance (that has admittedly cropped up in pieces on the other volumes) of kind of sneaking in to electronic sounds through more organic-sounding paths: the music here relies on atmospherics and harpischord-adjacent keys to set the mood, with psychedelic swirls and keys there but not the main focus. Additionally, Fife never overplays his hand, slow-rolling both tunes (especially Carpathian Mountains) and letting the ambience do its work. That’s also, humorously, where the project kind of falls apart: by separating these into standalone 7″es, it encourages listening to these songs as singles; Fife did the job of actually doing a score, though, which means it works better as background. So it wholly succeeds in being music that feels fitting for underscoring the reading of a classic tome, but is somewhat purposefully tamer on its own.

That said, Jonathan and Mina, if slow to the punch, is really dense and gets more and more intense the more familiar you are with its flow; and even if Mountains would have more of a chance to enact that effect if not limited by the side of a 7″, Fife milks a fair amount of range within its ambient swells as well.

(Yes, this also means the cover art feels especially fitting on this volume, with its line of devil masks / heads a nice set dressing element that vibes with the way the music “watches” the scene.)