Gibson, written by Don Houghton, with Christopher Lee returning as Count Dracula, Peter Cushing as Professor Van Helsing, Christopher Neame along with Stephanie Beacham and Caroline Munro as the Count's lovely prey. Attempting to modernize their popular Dracula franchise, Hammer produced DRACULA, A.D. 1972, which finds the Count revived in a modern day setting. The film begins in 18th Century England with the Count fighting his old nemesis, Professor Van Helsing. During the course of their fight, Dracula is killed by a wooden wagon wheel spoke but is revived 100 years later by an ambitious acolyte, to find himself in England of the 20th Century. For DRACULA, A.D. 1972, Hammer's music director, Philip Martell, chose to go in a different direction with the music, seeking a more modern sound to go along with the film's modern approach and so Mike Vickers was brought in to compose the music for the film. Vickers had a strong background as an arranger and composer in the early 1960's, and played guitar and saxophone for the Manfred Mann group during its early period. Vickers' music for the film is a mixture of orchestral acoustics with electronic instruments, incorporating modernistic, pop-jazz styled rhythms, Gothic tonalities with snare drum, organ and cymbals, reworked with horns, saxophone, bongos and drumkit. In addition to the score, the film features two songs by the American pop band, Stoneground, and atonal electroacoustic music composed by electronic music pioneer David Vorhaus for the black mass sequence. BSX Records presents the original motion picture soundtrack to DRACULA, A.D. 1972 in film order, along with the two songs by Stoneground as bonus tracks.
