Jozef Van Wissem/SQÜRL

★★★

Only Lovers Left Alive SACRED BONES. CD/DL/LP

Director Jim Jarmusch and Dutch lutenist score 2014’s continent-wide vampire tale. There is a sulphurous chemistry between Jarmusch’s noise trio SQÜRL and experimental lute player Van Wissem that undercuts his film’s undead badinage between Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston perfectly – all growling, midnight grooves, squalls of feedback and intricate acoustic picking. And while long-term musical foils Carter Logan and Shane Stoneback seemingly intuit when to ladle on the drama, a trio of collaborations supply the top-grade ruby nectar his leads clearly need to feed their doomed romance. Cults’ singer Madeline Follin puts a sinister twist on Wanda Jackson’s greatest B-side Funnel Of Love, Zola Jesus unleashes her full operatic force on In Templum Dei, before Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan’s showstealing Hal builds to a rapturous climax. Jarmusch’s films don’t always reward repeated viewings, but his soundtracks do.

Andy Cowan