John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter are back with Lost Themes IV: Noir, a brand new album from Sacred Bones Records that was released today, May 3.
Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.
The new ten song collection was loosely inspired by the noir genre and marks new territory for John Carpenter and his cohorts, imbibing their trademark synth hooks and pulsing drum machine with propulsive post punk basslines and smoldering guitar solos.
Here’s the full Lost Themes IV: Noir track list:
- My Name is Death (video below)
- Machine Fear
- Last Rites
- The Burning Door
- He Walks By Night (video below)
- Beyond The Gallows
- Kiss The Blood Off My Fingers
- Guillotine
- The Demon’s Shadow
- Shadows Have A Thousand Eyes
Sacred Bones previews, “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. 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 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.”
You can listen to Lost Themes IV: Noir right now!
