Walter Samuel
Abridged analytical notes on the film music of Klaus Harmony.
Hamburg, 1997
The final film of the Wohlfäht/Harmony collaboration, and the least likely to stir unanimous affection, was fraught with ominous moments throughout its creation and, it is argued, led to the death of its maker. A supernatural tome, Die Sexorcist portrays an eighteenth century priest who travels the countryside exorcising young virgins and older virgins alike with a ‘holy rod’. He extracts evil spirits inhabiting the women and, in exchange, injects goodness. Eventually his righteous resources are spent and all that remains in the pastor is pure evil. This culminates in a disturbing but thrilling denouement involving worms and boiling wax as he is consumed by the devil in the form of a naked woman carrying the ‘satanic lash’. Overwhelmed by the subsequent death of his colleague, Klaus Harmony declined to release the soundtrack and it was not until 2007 that his son, Helmut, felt able to include pieces of the score on the Oeuvre series. Evil Blows the Wind achieves a delicate balance of the gothic and discotheque styles, and is a testament to the last great work of a formidable partnership.