Weyes Blood, The Paranoyds and SadGirl feature in John Carpenter video for "My Name Is Death"

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. Made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, the songs 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're mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Sandy [King, John’s wife and producer] had given John a book for Christmas, of pictures from noir films, all stills from that era,” Davies says of the lightbulb moment for Lost Themes IV. “I was looking through it, and I thought, ‘I like that imagery, and what those titles make me think of. What if we loosely based it around that? What if the titles were of some of John’s favourite noir films?’”

The accompanying video, starring Carpenter, Carpenter and Davies alongside Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood), Staz Lindes (The Paranoyds) and Misha Lindes (SadGirl) is a miniature noir movie in itself, directed by Ambar Navarro. John Carpenter comments: "Noir is a uniquely American genre born in post-war cinema. We grew up loving Noir and were influenced by it for this new album. The video celebrates this style and our new song, My Name is Death."

By the time they got together to make the first Lost Themes, the Carpenters and Davies were, at least informally, decades deep into their collaboration. That album helped formalize a way of working that has largely gone unchanged 10 years later. “This is who we are, I think,” John summarizes. “Daniel’s the adventurer. He pushes for new sounds, new directions. He tries things that I haven’t thought of. He’s a lot more daring than I am, and he enriches the whole thing. Cody’s the musician. He’s a savant at music. He understands music. We depend on him to rescue us.” And what about John’s contribution? With characteristic understatement, he concludes: “I’m the experience. I’ve done music for movies before.”

Tracklist:

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