John Carpenter Announces Lost Themes IV: Noir With Music Video

Carpenter's fourth album of original music hits shelves on May 3rd.

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Filmmaker John Carpenter initially began crafting music for his own films as a way to save time and money, though his skills as a musician made his scores as compelling as anything seen on screen. In 2015, Carpenter released his first album of entirely original music, which he crafted with Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, with the fourth installment of this material, Lost Themes IV: Noir, being announced today by Sacred Bones Records. While the three previous albums leaned more into the atmosphere of horror movies, this upcoming album will explore other thematic influences, as confirmed by its title. To celebrate the announcement, Sacred Bones released a music video for the track "My Name is Death." Lost Themes IV: Noir is currently available to pre-order and hits shelves on May 3rd.

Sacred Bones describes the release, "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. 'Some of the music is heavy guitar riffs, which is not in old noir films,' Davies notes. 'But somehow, it's 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."

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(Photo: Sacred Bones Records)

The track listing for the album is as follows:

  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"

Related:

Physical media variants available for purchase include:

  • Sacred Bones Exclusive Red on Clear Splatter vinyl w/ Screen Printed 7" bonus track "Black Cathedral," a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Sacred Bones Society Exclusive on Black and White Splatter on Clear w/ Screen Printed 7" bonus track "Black Cathedral," a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • All retail Transparent Red, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Indie Exclusive Tan and Black Marble, w/ Screen Printed 7" bonus track "Black Cathedral," a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Rough Trade Exclusive Oxblood Red and Black Splatter, w/ Screen Printed 7" bonus track "Black Cathedral," a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Shout Exclusive Black and Clear cloudy, w/ Screen Printed 7" bonus track "Black Cathedral," a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Black LP, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • CD
  • Tape

Lost Themes IV: Noir is currently available to pre-order and hits shelves on May 3rd.

Will you be adding the album to your collection? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!   

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