Roman Polanski’s 1967 film ‘Dance Of The Vampires’ (as it was originally called, but more widely known by its re-named title ‘The Fearless Vampire Killers’, or ‘Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are In My Neck’) is a camp horror cult classic. At the time the film was marketed as a ‘farce’, which overlooked the fact that this film is fantastically eerie. The major part played by the soundtrack in giving the film this effect cannot be understated, and the cold-as-snow production did much to enhance the bleak wintery cinematography.

Polish jazz legend Krzysztof Komeda (1931-1969) provided the mesmeric score, as he did for a run of Polanki’s films from this period, namely ‘Knife In The Water’, ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, and ‘Cul-de-Sac’. These Polanski scores are of course his most well known, but Komeda (also a fully qualified doctor) scored over 40 other lesser known soundtracks which deserve attention (‘Le Départ’, for example), as well as being responsible for the Komeda Quintet album ‘Astigmatic’, a jazz masterpiece.

Whilst this particular soundtrack is not typical Komeda, and arguably one of his less fluid records when taken out of context from the film it augmented, it is nevertheless the work of a genius, and more than worthy of its first ever vinyl release.

Deluxe LP with a copy of the album on CD.