ALBUM
Artist: John Carpenter
Album: Lost Themes II
Record Label: Sacred Bones Records
Release Date: April 15, 2016
Formats: Digital Download, CD, Vinyl
Tracklist
1. Distant Dream (3:51)
2. White Pulse (4:20)
3. Persia Rising (3:39)
4. Angel’s Asylum (4:16)
5. Hofner Dawn (3:15)
6. Windy Death (3:39)
7. Dark Blues (4:16)
8. Virtual Survivor (3:58)
9. Bela Lugosi (3:23)
10. Last Sunrise (4:28)
11. Utopian Facade (3:47)
12. Real Xeno (Bonus track) (4:30)
MUSIC VIDEO
“Distant Dream”
ALBUM NOTES
On Halloween 2014, the director and composer John Carpenter introduced the world to the next phase of his career with “Vortex,” the first single from Lost Themes, his first-ever album of non-soundtrack material. In the months that followed, Lost Themes rightfully returned Carpenter to the forefront of the discussion of music and film’s crucial intersection. Carpenter’s foundational primacy and lasting influence on genre score work was both rediscovered and reaffirmed. Lost Themes achieved numerous international milestones, including NPR First Listen; features in dozens of press outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Guardian; three magazine covers; and Top 200 chart success in the U.S. and the U.K. The album was also a milemarker in its label’s catalog being one of the best selling albums in Sacred Bones’ eight-year history. So widespread was the acclaim for Lost Themes that the composer was moved to embark on something he had never before entertained – playing his music live in front of an audience.
Today, Carpenter announces the schedule for his first live tour dates and in true Carpenter spirit, a sequel to Lost Themes: Lost Themes II, which is due for release on April 15th via Sacred Bones.
The follow-up album brings quite a few noticeable changes to the process, which result in an even more fluid and thematic record. Lost Themes’ cowriters and musicians Cody Carpenter (John’s son) and Daniel Davies (John’s godson) both returned. Unlike their first album, when they often worked over the internet exchanging themes over the course of several years, this time all three brought in sketches and worked together in the same city, a luxury they weren’t afforded on the first Lost Themes. The result was a more focused effort, one that was completed on a compressed schedule — not unlike Carpenter’s classic, notoriously low-budget early films.
During this time, the three of them also composed and recorded the main titles theme for the CBS drama, Zoo, and Daniel also scored the feature film, Condemned. Cody was previously known for his work on the Masters of Horror series and Daniel provided music for Lakeshore Entertainment, MTV and Warner Bros. television.
The musical world of Lost Themes II is also a wider one than that of its predecessor; more electric and acoustic guitar help flesh out the songs, still driven by Carpenter’s trademark minimal synth. This manifests itself brilliantly in songs like the lead single “Distant Dream,” which hitches a familiar Carpenterian beat to an expressive drum performance and rides it to a thrilling conclusion. The eerie “Angel’s Asylum” lets an ethereal synth line command the first three-quarters of the song, before turning over the melody to an acoustic guitar, and “Virtual Survivor” delivers a blast of the sci-fi menace that characterized his great scores for films like Assault on Precinct 13 and They Live. Lost Themes II delivers eleven compelling new tracks with which fans can continue to score the movies in their minds.
John and his bandmates will hit the road this year performing both lost and newly found themes, in addition to retrospective work from Mr. Carpenter’s multi-generational career. Lost Themes II will be released on April 15th, 2016 on Sacred Bones Records.
Long live the Horror Master.