John Carpenter Confirms Lost Themes III Album Debuting in February, Releases First Track

Horror fans were looking forward to October because Halloween Kills was expected to land in theaters, which not only meant the continued adventures of Michael Myers, but also an all-new score from John Carpenter, and while that film might have been pushed until next year, Carpenter confirmed that his new albums, Lost Themes III: Alive After Death, would be released in February of 2021. This reveal might not entirely hold us over in the wake of no complete album being available, but we did also earn a preview track, “Weeping Ghost,” which you can hear above. Lost Themes III hits shelves on February 5, 2021.

Waxwork Records describes the release, “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.”

They add, “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,” Carpenter shared of the group’s writing 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.”

Dating back to his earliest efforts like Assault on Precinct 13 and Halloween, Carpenter crafted his own scores largely out of budgetary reasons, knowing he could put a score together more affordably and on a tighter schedule. Those films’ scores proved just as effective as any other cinematic component, with subsequent Carpenter films also coming with the filmmaker writing their scores.

Lost Themes was released in 2015, serving as an opportunity to craft soundtracks to movies that the listener could imagine, which proved a major success and earned the follow-up Lost Themes II in 2016. The albums also earned world tours, opening up an all-new career as a standalone musician for the figure known for his horror stories.

Grab Lost Themes III: Alive After Death on February 5, 2021. Carpenter will craft the scores for Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, which hit theaters on October 15, 2021 and October 14, 2022, respectively.

Are you looking forward to the new album? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!