John Carpenter announces Lost Themes II album

Horror maestro John Carpenter has announced details of a follow-up to his Lost Themes album, ahead of his first ever live gigs.

Often cited as a source of inspiration from musicians ranging through Portishead's Geoff Barrow to Clint Mansell, Carpenter is responsible for the music on a host of 70s and 80s classics including Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, Escape from New York and They Live!. His debut LP Lost Themes was released at the start of 2015, with a remix album featuring contributions from Blanck Mass, Prurient, Zola Jesus and Bill Kouligas following later in the year.

Lost Themes II sees Carpenter team up once again with cowriters and musicians Cody Carpenter (his son) and Daniel Davies (his godson). Describing his process in an interview with The Skinny last year, Carpenter said: "It’s a team effort now – and a family team effort, which is the greatest. Y’know, when I was scoring for movies I had to team with an engineer – often that was Alan Howarth – because I didn’t understand the synthesiser in those days. I didn’t know how to get sounds up; I didn’t know anything. So I would just do the playing and the composing and somebody would have to turn the buttons."

Carpenter will make his debut live appearances at Primavera Sound in Barcelona and ATP Iceland this summer, ahead of three UK gigs this October. Carpenter plays Manchester's Albert Hall on 28 & 29 October, and the Troxy in London on Halloween (31 October).

Lost Themes II is out on 15 April via Sacred Bones Records – read our interview with Taylor Brode of the Brooklyn label.