Description
John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies – Lost Themes IV: Noir – Tan and Black Marble Vinyl Record with Clear 7 Inch
Lost Themes IV: Noir brings John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies back to music that invites listeners to imagine the film for themselves. Released by Sacred Bones in 2024, the fourth album in the series takes inspiration from the imagery and atmosphere of film noir. The connection grew from a book of still photographs given to John Carpenter, leading the trio toward titles and moods that suggest pursuit, danger, and uncertainty. Their musical tools remain modern synthesizers and electric guitars, allowing the influence of older cinema to be expressed through the sound they have developed together.
The opening “My Name Is Death” establishes that approach through a driving bass figure, electronic rhythm, atmospheric synthesizer, and a prominent guitar presence. The title could belong to a shadowy crime picture, but the composition does not have to follow an existing scene or a director’s edit. That freedom is central to the Lost Themes project. Musical ideas can develop according to the trio’s instincts, with changes in texture and intensity doing the work that dialogue or a cut might perform in a film. The listener supplies the setting and the characters.
Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies are integral collaborators, and the recording reflects a partnership built through years of making music together. Synthesizer lines and guitar parts occupy complementary roles, moving between atmosphere and more forceful statements. The noir influence does not turn the album into an imitation of mid-century orchestral scores. Instead, it directs the emotional character of the pieces while leaving the trio’s established vocabulary intact. That combination gives the project continuity with earlier Lost Themes releases and with the musicians’ soundtrack work, while providing a distinct point of departure for this installment.
The titles make the cinematic references especially visible. “He Walks by Night,” “Kiss the Blood Off My Fingers,” and “Shadows Have a Thousand Eyes” evoke the language of suspense pictures, while “Beyond the Gallows” connects to Carpenter’s affection for Out of the Past and its alternate title, Build My Gallows High. Alongside “Machine Fear,” “Last Rites,” and “The Demon’s Shadow,” they create a sequence of suggestive scenes rather than one fixed narrative. The music is free to remain ambiguous, which is part of what makes it effective as an album beyond any single imagined story.
This indie-exclusive configuration contains the ten-track album on tan-and-black marble vinyl, accompanied by a clear 7-inch with the bonus track “Black Cathedral.” The reverse of the single is screen printed. That additional piece extends the package beyond the standard LP program while preserving the main album’s sequence. For listeners who follow Carpenter’s music as closely as his films, Lost Themes IV: Noir offers another substantial collaboration from the trio, using a shared love of cinema to generate instrumental music with a strong atmosphere and room for the listener’s own imagination.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
Track Listing
LP — My Name Is Death
LP — Machine Fear
LP — Last Rites
LP — The Burning Door
LP — He Walks by Night
LP — Beyond the Gallows
LP — Kiss the Blood Off My Fingers
LP — Guillotine
LP — The Demon's Shadow
LP — Shadows Have a Thousand Eyes
Bonus 7-Inch — Black Cathedral
