John Carpenter

★★★

Lost Themes III: Alive After Death SACRED BONES. CD/DL/LP

The horror! Ever stranger things from the mind of director and composer.

John Carpenter, director of Assault On Precinct 13, The Fog and Halloween, started scoring his own films out of low-budget necessity. Since 2015, however, he has been releasing music shorn of any visuals. Volume three of Lost

Themes, recorded once again with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, proves again that his ominous synth atmospheres could turn any sitting room into the site of a terrifying chase. He’s never met a supernatural entity he can’t pair with thumping darktronica and stalking rock guitar – Weeping Ghost, Vampire’s Touch, Skeleton – but it’s done with a fabulously cold touch. And if you can’t thrill to a track titled Carpathian Darkness, you have no soul. Expect Carpenter to write a theme for you next.