Search Results for:

JOHN CARPENTER

John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies

Lost Themes - 10th Anniversary Expanded Edition

    To celebrate the 10th anniversary of 'Lost Themes', Sacred Bones are thrilled to present an expanded art edition of the album with art by Greg Ruth. This special release includes an additional 7-inch featuring two previously unreleased tracks from the original recording session - 'Cruisin’ With Mr. Scratch' and 'Dominator'. Upon its initial release, 'Lost Themes' was praised for its evocative soundscapes ranging from horror to science fiction, each track conjuring a distinct atmosphere without the need for accompanying visuals. The expanded edition of 'Lost Themes' not only celebrates a decade of John Carpenter’s standalone musical journey but also enriches the album’s legacy with new material that captures the spirit of its original sessions. Whether revisiting this masterpiece or experiencing it for the first time, listeners will find themselves immersed in Carpenter’s hauntingly beautiful worlds once again.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Vortex
    2. Obsidian
    3. Fallen
    4. Domain
    5. Mystery
    6. Abyss
    7. Wraith
    8. Purgatory
    9. Night

    7" Tracklisting:
    1. Cruisin’ With Mr.
    2. Scratch
    3. Dominator

    John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies

    Lost Themes IV: Noir

      It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become 'Lost Themes', his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. In the years since, Carpenter, Carpenter, and Davies have released close to a dozen musical projects, including a growing library of studio albums and the scores for David Gordon Green’s trilogy of Halloween reboots. With 'Lost Themes IV: Noir', they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

      Since the first 'Lost Themes', John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone. The noir quality, then, is something you understand instinctively when you hear it, as in connected in an emotional way.

      The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means 'Lost Themes IV: Noir' runs like a well-oiled machine - the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.


      TRACK LISTING

      1. My Name Is Death
      2. Machine Fear
      3. Last Rites
      4. The Burning Door
      5. He Walks By Night
      6. Beyond The Gallows
      7. Kiss The Blood Off My Fingers
      8. Guillotine
      9. The Demon’s Shadow
      10. Shadows Have A Thousand Eyes

      Indie's Exclusive 7" Bonus Track:
      1. Black Cathedral

      John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies

      Anthology II (Movie Themes 1976-1988)

        By now everyone should know John Carpenter is not only a celebrated filmmaker but also a musical maestro whose soundtracks have become synonymous with the genres of horror, suspense, and science fiction. His innate talent for composition and his deep understanding of how music can elevate storytelling have left an indelible mark on the world of cinema, and a haunting presence in people’s record collections.

        Anthology II continues the celebration of his compositional genius via an excellently sequenced collection of some of his most iconic pieces of music from his extensive filmography, all newly recorded with his musical collaborators Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter.

        The compilation opens with “Chariots of Pumpkins” from Halloween III that perfectly captures the eerie essence of the cult classic film with its pulsating synths and haunting melodies. The listener is engulfed by a sense of unease and anticipation, before being thrust into “69th St. Bridge” from Escape From New York, a dynamic track that encapsulates the futuristic and gritty nature of the film via the use of throbbing bass lines, driving rhythms, and electronic textures. The record has also an isolating tone as it skulks through ambient leaning tracks such as “Fuchs” and “To Mac’s Shack” from The Thing, and “Walk to the Lighthouse” from The Fog, all of which display a slower tempo, foreboding undertones and an ethereal atmosphere that feels like a distant whisper. All of which has been cautiously laid in preparation to the grand finale. The iconic and instantly recognizable ”Laurie’s Theme” from the original Halloween. Its simple yet menacing piano melody which has become synonymous with the horror genre, concludes the album by striking fear into the hearts of listeners.

        These tracks represent just a fraction of John Carpenter’s impressive musical repertoire. With each haunting note and pulsating beat, his soundtracks continue to resonate with audiences, forever etching his name in the annals offilm music history.


        TRACK LISTING

        1. Chariots Of Pumpkins (Halloween III)
        2. 69th St. Bridge (Escape From New York)
        3. The Alley (War) (Big Trouble In Little China)
        4. Wake Up (They Live)
        5. Julie’s Dead (Assault On Precinct 13)
        6. The Shape Enters Laurie’s Room (Halloween II)
        7. Season Of The Witch (Halloween III)
        8. Love At A Distance (Prince Of Darkness)
        9. The Shape Stalks Again (Halloween II)
        10. Burn It (The Thing)
        11. Fuchs (The Thing)
        12. To Mac’s Shack (The Thing)
        13. Walk To The Lighthouse (The Fog)
        14. Laurie’s Theme (Halloween)

        John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, And Daniel Davies

        Halloween Ends Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

          After 45 years, the most acclaimed, revered horror franchise in film history reaches its epic, terrifying conclusion as Laurie Strode faces off for the last time against the embodiment of evil, Michael Myers, in a final confrontation unlike any captured on-screen before, one where only one of them will survive.

          When the franchise relaunched in 2018, Halloweenshattered box office records, becoming the franchise’s highest-grossing chapter and set a new record for the biggest opening weekend for a horror film starring a woman. In 2021, Halloween Killsearned the biggest opening weekend for any horror film in the pandemic era and simultaneously set a new record for a non-live event premiere streaming on Peacock.

          As Halloween Endsmarks the last chapter of the David Gordon Green trilogy, so it ushers the essential return of original director and composer John Carpenter to score the iconically hair-raising soundtrack alongside Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. Together they once again bring the celebrated music score to the horror movie series, one of the most distinctive aspects of the franchise to date

          Similarly to the last two soundtracks, Halloween Endswas recorded in its entirety at John Carpenter’s home studio and Daniel’s studio. “The three of us compose,perform, and record all the music, and everything is mixed by Daniel together with John Spiker” says John Carpenter.

          The unmistakable mix of software synths, vintage analogue equipment, and live instrumentation is utilized once again to provide the signature sound of Halloween. However, rumors have it that Halloween Ends is going to be somewhat different from the previous two films in the trilogy. With that comes an expanded soundtrack, one that matches the tone of a tangible rise in stakes and conveys the climatic feel of the film. The soundtrack of the third installment broadens old themes whilst creating new ones in an effort to bring renewed life to one of the most epic horror scores ever written. Carpenter elaborates, “The main themes have all been passed down from the original Halloween. We have refined them and created new themes for new characters.

          ”The soundtrack was tracked scene by scene but the album itself plays like a standalone piece of music. The general atmosphereis one of dread yet the record includes some groove laden moments reminiscent of Escape From New York or some of Carpenter’s other more dance-able scores. Exquisite and delicate ambient pieces weave their way between some of the score’s more arresting moments and yet maintain a subtle pop sensibility. The overall achievement showcases three master musicians, one of whom invented the entire horror-synth genre, crafting an evocative, playful and deeply listenable score that honors a legacy and expands on the decades of work that have been leading to this triumphant climax.

          Carpenter is known for directing the original 1978 Halloween, as well as other horror classics like The Thing, The Fog, Escape From New York, Christine, Big Trouble in Little China, andThey Live. However John Carpenter is not only a cult movie-maker, he’s also a pioneering electronic composer. Halloween Endsis the soundtrack of the final battle against evil. Watch your back this Halloween, Michael may be near you.

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Barry says: One of the most legendary soundtrack writers and directors of all time, in his newest guise with both Cody (his son) and Daniel Davies bring us the third and final bout of dystopian synths and tense atmospheric drone. A blistering, and perfectly fitting instrumental tour de force.

          TRACK LISTING

          1 Where Is Jeremy?
          2 Halloween Ends (Main Title)
          3 Laurie’s Theme Ends
          4 The Cave
          5 Cool Kid
          6 Drags To The Cave
          7 Evil Eyes
          8 Transformation
          9 Because Of You
          10 Requiem For Jeremy
          11 Kill The Cop
          12 Corey And Michael
          13 Corey’s Requiem
          14 The Junk Yard
          15 Where Are You?
          16 Bye Bye Corey
          17 The Fight
          18 Before Her Eyes
          19 The Procession
          20 Cherry Blossoms
          21 Halloween Ends

          John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies

          Firestarter Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

            The horror master John Carpenter is back with his Halloween franchise collaborators Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter for their infectious new soundtrack to the 2022 adaptation of Stephen King’s Firestarter. This marks the first official soundtrack that the team has composed together outside of the Halloween franchise and their inspiration and evolution as a creative team is on full display.

            The film is a new take on the thriller examining a girl with extraordinary pyrokinetic powers and her fight to protect her family and herself from sinister forces that seek to capture and control her. The film releases theatrically on May 13th, 2022 and stars Zac Efron, Sydney Lemmon, Ryan Kiera, is directed by Keith Thomas (The Vigil) and created by the producers of The Invisible Man. The story has become a classic and the intense nature of the film creates a canvas for a dynamic soundtrack.

            The Firestarter soundtrack utilizes some of the best elements of Carpenter’s famous musical repertoire and charts exciting new territory. The tracks range from fist pumping sci-fi anthems to slow reverb drenched piano ballads and each utilizes a variety of sonic applications. Skulking beats, skittering synths, crushing guitars and an ever-lurking echo come together to create an album that is atmospheric and also deeply melodic, cohesive and eclectic. These three musicians are all working in the peak of their individual and collaborative creativity and this soundtrack further solidifies them as masters of the craft.

            TRACK LISTING

            1. Mother’s Love
            2. Lot 6 (Main Titles)
            3. Are You Scared Of Me?
            4. Dodge Ball Heats Up
            5. Corporate Menace
            6. Burned Hands
            7. Rainbird Fights Vicky
            8. Bless Mommy
            9. Flashback Kills
            10. Police Arrive
            11. Sniper Attack
            12. Charlie Alone
            13. Charlie’s Powers
            14. I’ll Find You
            15. Charlie’s Rampage
            16. Rampage Ends
            17. Firestarter (End Titles)

            John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter And Daniel Davies

            Halloween Kills: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

            In 2018, David Gordon Green’s Halloween, starring icon Jamie Lee Curtis, slaughtered the box office, earning more than $250 million worldwide, becoming the highestgrossing chapter in the four-decade franchise and setting a new record for the biggest opening weekend in history for a horror film starring a woman. The film had the distinction of being the first film in the series with creator John Carpenter’s direct involvement since 1982’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Carpenter served as an executive producer, a creative consultant, and, thrillingly, as a soundtrack composer, alongside his collaborators from his recent solo albums, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies.

            STAFF COMMENTS

            Barry says: John Carpenter is obviously one of the most legendary figures in the soundtracking biz, and in the newest iteration with Cody &co, we get possibly his strongest late-career work to date. 'Halloween Kills' is a wonderfully evocative, perfectly pitched soundtrack from one of the true masters. Everything you'd expect.

            TRACK LISTING

            01.Logos Kill
            02. Halloween Kills (Main Title
            03. The Myer’s House
            04. First Attack
            05. Stand Off
            06. Let It Burn
            07. He Appears
            08. From The Fire
            09. Strodes At The Hospital
            10. Cruel Intentions
            11. Gather The Mob
            12. Rampage
            13. Frank And Laurie
            14. Hallway Madness
            15. It Needs To Die
            16. Reflection
            17. Unkillable
            18. Payback
            19. Michael’s Legend
            20. Halloween Kills (End Titles) 

            Much has changed in the musical life of renowned composer and director John Carpenter since 2016’s Lost Themes II. Following the release of that album, he went on his first-ever concert tour, performing material from the Lost Themes albums, as well as music from his classic film scores. He re-recorded many of those classic movie themes for 2017’s Anthology album, working alongside son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies. The following year, he was asked to executive produce and compose the music for the new Halloween movie directed by David Gordon Green, which promptly became the highest-grossing installment in the series. Now, he returns with his first album of non-soundtrack music in nearly five years, Lost Themes III: Alive After Death.

            Underpinning Carpenter’s renaissance as a musician has been his collaboration with Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. They’ve composed and performed as a trio throughout this entire run, on studio albums, on soundtracks, and onstage. Here, the trio reaches a new level of creative mind meld. Richly rendered worlds are built in the interplay between Davies’s guitar and the dueling synthesizers played by the Carpenters.

            “We begin with a theme, a bass line, a pad, something that sounds good and will lead us to the next layer,” John says of the trio’s process. “We then just keep adding on from there. We understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses, how to communicate without words, and the process is easier now than it was in the beginning. We’ve matured.”

            Whereas the original Lost Themes album came as a pleasant surprise after years of relative silence from Carpenter, the third installment sees him in the midst of a resurgent moment as a cultural force. The 2018 Halloween score gave his music its biggest audience in decades, and the world he releases his new album into is one that has, at long last, given him the credit he deserves as a founding father of modern electronic music.


            STAFF COMMENTS

            Barry says: There are very few forces more influential in the world of soundtrackery than John Carpenter, and it's no mean feat that his music outside of soundtracks is every bit as impressive. Featuring once again his son Cody and Daniel. Davies, Lost Themes III is every bit the pulsing, synthy wonder and helps further cement Carpenter's place in the annals of musical history.

            TRACK LISTING

            Alive After Death (4:05)
            Weeping Ghost (3:33)
            Dripping Blood (3:54)
            Dead Eyes (3:26)
            Vampire’s Touch (4:30)
            Cemetery (4:11)
            Skeleton (3:13)
            Turning The Bones (3:33)
            The Dead Walk (4:25)
            Carpathian Darkness (5:36)

            When the new Halloween movie hits theaters in October 2018, it will have the distinction of being the first film in the series with creator John Carpenter’s direct involvement since 1982’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Carpenter serves on the new David Gordon Green-directed installment as an executive producer, a creative consultant, and, thrillingly, as a soundtrack composer, alongside his collaborators from his three recent solo albums, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies.

            The new soundtrack pays homage to the classic Halloween score that Carpenter composed and recorded in 1978, when he forever changed the course of horror cinema and synthesizer music with his low-budget masterpiece. Several new versions of the iconic main theme serve as the pulse of Green’s film, its familiar 5/4 refrain stabbing through the soundtrack like the Shape’s knife. The rest of the soundtrack is just as enthralling, incorporating everything from atmospheric synth whooshes to eerie piano-driven pieces to skittering electronic percussion. While the new score was made with a few more resources than Carpenter’s famously shoestring original, its musical spirit was preserved.

            “We wanted to honor the original Halloweensoundtrack in terms of the sounds we used,” Davies explained. “We used a lot of the Dave Smith OB-6, bowed guitar, Roland Juno, Korg, Roli, Moog, Roland System 1, Roland System 8, different guitar pedals, mellotron, and piano.”

            Unlike the Lost Themes albums, where the composers wrote the soundtracks for imaginary movies, Halloween saw the Carpenters and Davies collaborating on music set to images for the first time. Though it marked a significant change from their previous creative process, the trio thrived under the constraints and tight deadlines that film scoring work demands.

            “Being limited by the length of time in scoring the sequence, we focused on the director’s tempo, timing, and vision,” Davies said. “He would tell us what he had in mind, how long the cue should be, what emotion he wanted, and we would take it from there. It’s only the three of us, there is no elaborate system. We wrote, performed, and orchestrated everything.”

            For John Carpenter, who reunited on the new film with original Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis, composing the score felt like a homecoming. Not only had he not worked on a Halloween movie in 35 years, he hadn’t composed a soundtrack since his 2001 sci-fi thriller Ghosts of Mars.

            “It was great,” Carpenter said of the experience. “It was transforming. It was not a movie I directed, so I had a lot of freedom in creating the score and getting into the director's head. I was proud to serve David Gordon Green’s vision.”

            For Cody Carpenter, John’s son, and Davies, his godson, it was surreal to work on something that means so much to generations of fans, and that they grew up around.

            “It was an honor for us to be involved, and we are really happy to be a part of something that so many people are anticipating and excited about,” Davies said. “Working together with both the director of the new Halloween and the creator of the original Halloween was really a fantastic experience.”

            TRACK LISTING

            1. "Halloween Theme" 2:21
            2. "Halloween 1963" 3:11
            3. "The Evil Is Gone!" 4:08
            4. "Halloween 1978" 2:50
            5. "The Boogeyman Is Coming" 0:40
            6. "The Shape" 1:43
            7. "The Hedge" 1:35
            8. "He Came Home" 2:40
            9. "Trick Or Treat" 0:39
            10. "The Haunted House" 1:43
            11. "The Devil's Eyes" 1:39
            12. "The Boogeyman Is Outside" 1:27
            13. "Damn You For Letting Him Go!" 1:34
            14. "Empty Street" 0:33
            15. "See Anything You Like?" 2:22
            16. "Lock The Door" 2:53
            17. "He's Here?" 0:55
            18. "Light's Out" 2:49
            19. "Cut It Out" 1:19
            20. "Tombstone" 1:19
            21. "The Shape Stalks Laurie" 1:35
            22. "Turn Around" 0:33
            23. "Unlock The Door" 2:53
            24. "The Hanger" 3:04
            25. "Call The Police" 0:28
            26. "Last Assault" 1:34
            27. "Was That The Boogeyman?" 0:32
            28. "End Credits/Halloween Theme (Reprise)" 3:36

            John Carpenter

            Halloween - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

              In celebration of its 35th anniversay, MONDO is pleased to present the original soundtrack to John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN. This release features the most comprehensive version of the soundtrack, never before released on vinyl, cut at 45RPM for the best possible sound quality.


              Latest Pre-Sales

              219 NEW ITEMS

              E-newsletter —
              Sign up
              Back to top