As the director and composer behind dozens of classic movies, Carpenter has established a reputation as one of the greatest filmmakers in the history of modern cinema, and equally, one of its best and most influential musicians. The minimal, synth-powered themes to films like Halloween, Escape From New York, and Assault on Precinct 13 are inseparable from the films themselves, and their timelessness was evident as Carpenter played them live in a bunch of internationally sold-out concert dates in 2016.
Anthology: Movie Themes 1974 – 1998 collects 13 (appropriate, no?) movie themes from Carpenter’s career together on one volume for the first time. Each theme has been newly recorded with the same collaborators that Carpenter worked with on his hit Lost Themes studio albums: his son, Cody Carpenter, and godson, Daniel Davies. Wholesome family fun!
This record is a pretty solid overview of John Carpenter’s greatest themes, from his very first movie, the zero-budget sci-fi Dark Star, to 1998’s supernatural Western, Vampires. Those sit alongside the driving, Led Zeppelin-influenced Assault on Precinct 13 theme, Halloween’s creepy 5/4 piano riff, and the eerie synth work of The Fog. Carpenter and his band also cover Ennio Morricone’s bleak, minimalist theme for The Thing. (“I asked Morricone to please compose something with a very few notes,” Carpenter says. “And brilliantly, he did.”)
In the weeks following the album's release, Carpenter will hit the road again, playing both his well known movie themes and material from his two Lost Themes albums.
Here's the trailer for the original Halloween movie: