Local band Mood Area 52 will resurrect a vampire Friday at Tsunami Books. The group, which dubs its style “nuevo tango,” will be performing a score it has created for the classic 1922 silent film “Nosferatu.”
Mood Area 52 has been together for nearly five years and is comprised of accordionist Michael Roderick, cellist Amy Danziger, bassist Dan Schmid, violinist Anthony Dyer, guitarist Adam Wendt and saxophonist Kee Zublin. The group was recently chosen as the third best band in Eugene by the Eugene Weekly, while Schmid, who is also a member of the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and the Visible Men, was chosen as best male musician. For the Tsunami performance they will be joined by drummer Jim West.
“Nosferatu” was directed by F.W. Murnau and is considered one of the classics of German expressionist style. It was loosely based on the novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker and was remade in 1979 by Werner Herzog. In 2000 it inspired the film “Shadow of the Vampire,” which was a take on the mysteriousness that surrounded the original film’s star, Max Schreck. Mood Area 52 has performed the score once before, last April at Sam Bond’s Garage. They had previously performed their own score for the 1962 French short film “La Jetée,” which was written and directed by Chris Marker. The band has also released a self-titled album of original material.
Roderick, the band’s primary composer, said that he chose to score “Nosferatu” because of its graphic beauty and also because it is one of his favorite films. The band resurrected the score for this performance due to its popularity and because it seemed like an appropriate choice this close to Halloween.
“We’re thinking of recording the score, but we want to see how it plays,” Roderick said. “The majority of our music is based, at least stylistically, in the tango tradition, which has a lot of tense overtones and can be pretty spooky. For this score we’ve taken that element and explored the possibilities of exaggerating those qualities.”
Roderick said that the score utilizes a degree of jazz improvisational theory as well as fixed themes for each character and certain plot elements.
Other members of the band also think that the film is a good choice for a musical score.
“They broke the mold when they made this one,” guitarist Wendt said. “I’ve never seen anything like it, the way it touches on so many issues, like money, plague, greed. Our music fits because it has a kind of ethereal, cinematic quality, like something out of a spaghetti western.”
Tsunami Books is located at 2585 Willamette St. The all-ages performance begins at 8 p.m. and tickets will be $5 at the door.