Its 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 Hollywoods 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 Greens trilogy of Halloween reboots. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, theyve 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 noirpictures 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, as in connected in an emotional way.

The trios free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machinethe 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from Johns own Christine. Its a chemistry thats helped power one of the most productive stretches of Johns creative life, and Noir proves that its nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.

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 Demons Shadow
10. Shadows Have a Thousand Eyes