Here’s a new soundtrack (COLD SPRING CSR363CD) for the classic Der Golem movie, composed and performed by Hermann Kopp.
I’ve personally always had a soft spot for the Golem, a far more interesting and simpatico monster than the lumbering Frankenstein creation, ever since I saw a 1967 movie on the telly called Curse of the Golem (also called It! or Anger of the Golem). In it, Roddy McDowall is an endearingly soppy and confused museum curator as he attempts to take charge of the supernatural power he unwittingly has at his disposal. There’s also the cabbalistic side to the ancient legend of this clay fellow which appeals to me for some reason; in some versions, the text or clay tablet you have to insert into the mouth of the giant contains one of the hidden names of God, written in Hebrew letters. To us it might seem like an early version of a password, or crypto-currency expressed in a string of code.
Well, good to see this Kopp has turned his considerable talents towards celebrating this mud-man in musical form, and he based his music on the German expressionist film by Paul Wegener, a near-lost piece of cinema and an under-rated entry in the “haunted screen” genre, eclipsed by Fritz Lang’s Metropolis or The Cabinet of Dr Kaligari. Paul Wegener not only directed, but he played the Golem himself; in that role he created some unforgettable images, and not just due to the stunning light and shadow effects; I mean the body language, the costume, the rugged facial expressions. It would take Bruno Ganz, playing Kasper Hauser, to come anywhere near the intensity of that blocked stiffness, that ungainliness of forced movement.
Herman Kopp I never heard before. He’s something of an outlier in the saga of German electronic music in the post-Kluster world, I would guess. He seems to have been active in the 1970s with his violin and some approximation of a Moog synth, but these very personal and poetic expressions might not be available on record. After his 1983 Pop solo record for the Passiv label, he gained notoriety by doing the music for a few movies by Jörg Buttgereit, including the infamous Nekromantic – a low-budget erotic-horror shocker unseen by the present writer who is too squeamish, but its shocking imagery and transgressive themes have led to it being banned in several countries, and no doubt accounting for its cult status since 1987. Matter of fact it seems like just the sort of strong meat this “transgressive” record label would be drawn to. Herman Kopp’s music for this monstrosity – along with two other Buttgereit movies – has been kept in print by Red Stream and Aesthetic Records in the US.
Nothing too shocking, transgressive or unwholesome on today’s Der Golem record though, and I’m fascinated by the macabre moods, the magical atmospheres, and the deft, elliptical suggestions of narrative events. Kopp’s music is also strikingly original, never settling for a commonplace sound or a familiar note; I don’t say he’s a “great” violin or viola player, but he uses these instruments entirely in a way that’s integrated into his unique musical scheme, blending their taut and unsettling drones with odd electronic music and producing some uncanny flavours. Very grateful for the chance to hear this Kopp and I may dig further into his works, if I can avoid rattling the skeletons and slipping in the entrails of Nekromantic. This label has been making very occasional forays into soundtracks and what they might term “cinematic” music lately, and it’s a welcome development. For the most part, that is…(20/04/2026)